Warbreaker's Ruin
by SoCloseToToast
Summary: A prophecy: simply vague words given meaning and importance by those who believe in them. Indeed, prophecies are crafted to be purposefully obscure. And the problem with vague world-saving prophecies is that they cut both ways. They say that someone will have the power to save the world. That same prophecy turned on it's head hints they will also have the power to destroy it. AU.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hello all! This is my first fanfic so I beg for your indulgence. The first chapter will be a bit rough as I was getting my thoughts in order, deciding what themes I wanted in the story and which I didn't.**

**Groveling aside, enjoy the story!**

**Summary: A prophecy is simply vague words given meaning and importance by those who believe in them. Indeed, prophecies are crafted to be purposefully obscure. And the problem with vague world-saving prophecies is that they cut both ways. ****Prophecies say that someone will have the power to save the world.**

**That same prophecy turned on its head, however, hints also will have the power to destroy it.**

_All your intentions take their toll_

_All you hate enthralls your soul._

_When you win you sometimes lose_

_All you love does not love you._

_- The Dolls of New Albion_

**Chapter One**

**Everything Has a Price**

_I should have realized from my mother's lessons that everything has a balance. For darkness there is an equal amount of light. For sanity, there is an equal amount of insanity. That in mind, the betrayal should never have surprised me so much. In that failing, I feel responsible._

_**Line Break**_

Naruto crouched just outside one of Konoha's alleyways, his right hand on the ground, balancing him as he did his best to get his breathing to a manageable level. His run earlier had been frantic, closely pursued by people who did not appreciate his sense of humor. The Hokage's monument had recently received a new paintjob during the night. Now the stone face's security force were after him.

Clearly the ANBU had no idea with whom they were dealing with or else they wouldn't have tried to directly capture him like they had. Did they not consider the possibility that, if he was able paint the Hokage's mountain before the sun had risen, he was capable of setting up traps to slow them down?

Naruto snorted as his breathing settled, standing up and forming a single seal with his hands. In an instant he appeared to be someone else. In place of his short, stalky, spiky and blond-haired frame dressed in an orange jumpsuit and sandals was a girl a few years older than himself, putting her at about sixteen, with auburn hair, dressed in a simple brown shirt and trousers that hung from her frame a few sizes too large. His normally blue eyes were now brown and his face was smudged with dirt. He'd learned that people ignored those who they viewed as far beneath them. It was fascinating how the general population of Konoha did their best to ignore the impoverished. Though at times like this, it had its uses. In a crowd of people, he was invisible.

The Henge, as bastardized as it - and everything else he owned and knew – was, it was also one of the few things he got decent marks in at the academy, along with the Kawarimi, or the replacement jutsu.

He set out into the market, illusion firmly in place. The ANBU would be looking for Naruto Uzumaki, prankster extraordinaire and general miscreant, not a girl three years older than he was dressed in conventional clothing. Crazy they called him. Well, who'd outfoxed whom now?

For all their vaunted training and experience, ANBU weren't that good at deciphering chakra signatures amongst a crowd of people, a fair number of whom were probably using an illusion to cover up a facial blemish or something else about their body they didn't like. That just made him another face in the crowd, a dull blip in a sea of fish.

_So long, suckers._ Naruto thought triumphantly, smiling to himself as he pushed through the mass of milling people towards the corner he lived on.

That was when a white masked figure dressed in black, billowing robes over tailored black body armor and matching trousers, decided to materialize at his side, clasping one hand on Naruto's shoulder.

"What?" The ANBU asked in surprise, squeezing Naruto's shoulder with a grip so strong that Naruto felt his bones groan with the strain. The apparent surprise didn't stop the surge in chakra Naruto felt from the man holding his shoulder. In a blurry burst of motion that made Naruto nauseous and loose grip on his illusion, he found himself standing in a circular grassy field surrounded by trees.

Blinking, Naruto looked around and saw the Hokage's monument far in the distance. He had been removed from Konoha, at least a three miles judging from the distance.

His stupefied attention was dragged away from the mountain by a soft sound of metal bouncing off grass and dirt. Looking down, Naruto saw a seven-inch long kunai resting just beside his foot, gray steel glinting menacingly in the sun.

"Nifty trick with the illusion back there, you almost fooled me." Came a hollow sounding voice from behind him.

Turning, Naruto saw the same ANBU who'd abducted him standing ten feet away, black-gloved hand holding a kunai identical to the one resting by Naruto's foot. The ANBU's voice had been made hollow by the porcelain mask worn over his face, intricate lines carved and inscribed on the mask giving it the impression of a dog, a high ranking officer if Naruto's memory of the lecture Iruka gave a couple of months ago was correct. The closer to a human's intelligence the animal the mask mimicked, the higher the rank. This ANBU was very highly ranked.

"Why did you bring me here?" Naruto asked, eyeing the ninja warily.

"Did you think we didn't know?" The ANBU asked, kunai twirling through the air, dancing on this ANBU's dexterous fingers. "You think the ANBU so incompetent that we haven't known about your dual loyalties?"

Naruto stiffened in anger at the accusation. Konoha was his home! It may have treated him like crap, cruel eyed people forcing him to fend for himself for the majority of his life, but he always maintained the thought it would get better, that the coin would eventually turn up in his favor. That this self-righteous pompous windbag even so much as suggested that he was a traitor set his blood boiling.

"I'm no traitor." Naruto spat, eyes flickering to the weapon the ANBU must have accidently dropped when he transported him. If he could reach down and grab it fast enough, he might get lucky and get in a blow against this assassin. Then he could go to the Hokage and get this straightened out. He knew the old man and was sure he would listen and understand.

"Then please explain your association with Korin, the thief and Iwa spy."

Naruto froze, eyes widening in surprise. Korin was a spy? Naruto knew he was a thief; hell, he was one himself. You did what you had to if you were to survive. But he never thought of the grizzled thug who cared for coin above everything else as a spy. It didn't make sense. But then, that was the point of a spy.

"I...I needed the money." Naruto said lamely, cringing slightly as the words left his mouth. Even he knew that was a weak excuse.

"Traitors are to be killed." The ANBU said icily, his words sending shivers through Naruto's spine. The detached, uncaring way the man had so simply said it unnerved Naruto. It was as if this man were death himself.

For an instant, it seemed as though it were true. Naruto saw a red gleam under the mask that suddenly seemed so skeletal under the hood; the kunai was a scythe ready to separate his soul from body.

"Wait!" Naruto cried, using his foot to kick the weapon up into his right hand and dropping into a defensive stance, feet apart and hands raising with the hand holding the kunai hovering just in front of a clenched left fist. "Take me to the Hokage. I want to see him."

"I'm a sporting man." The ANBU replied, unfazed by the appearance of a weapon. "That's why I left you the weapon. If you prove your loyalty to me, I might let you go."

Naruto felt a stab of incredulity. How would fighting a man both larger and stronger than he prove his loyalty? Unless… the kunai was meant for Naruto to mutilate himself with. He'd heard stories, after all. The thought made Naruto's stomach turn.

"A true Konoha ninja would be able and willing to fight no matter the odds. He would be willing to die to prove his loyalty. So… come, boy. Let's see just how loyal you really are."

_This is insane._ Naruto thought, steeling his mind against the panic welling up in him. He was Naruto Uzu-fucking-maki and he'd pulled more dangerous pranks before breakfast than fight a crazed ANBU. He'd get through this no problem and be laughing with the Hokage about the error by dinner tonight.

"Let's do this, then." Naruto said, chakra flaring in his body as he raised his weapon further. He glared at the masked ANBU over his knuckles that were white from the tightness of his grip on the handle. "I have a prank to brag about in class next period."

The ANBU slid forward, covering the distance between them in the blink of an eye, steel glinting in the sunlight as he swung. Naruto leaned back, allowing the blade to sail over where his head had been moments before. To Naruto, combat was instinctive, almost as easy as breathing. He lacked the refinement his fellow classmates back at the academy possessed, but he far from incompetent in the spur of the moment.

Reaching up, he grasped the ANBU's extended arm and used it like a horizontal pole, vaulting himself upward and kicking his feet to give him mid-air rotation, spinning him around so that he was facing the ground. Following through with the spin, Naruto struck out with his kunai in an attempt to plunge the weapon into the still charging ANBU's shoulder.

He could have – should have - aimed for the neck. But he was a thief, not a murderer. Murder was a line he was not willing to cross. A stranger's possessions he could steal without qualms, not their life. A wound to the shoulder would bleed enough to not be life threating, but slow him down enough so that Naruto could escape.

The steel of the kunai passed harmlessly through the ANBU's shoulder causing Naruto's eyes to widen in surprise as the blade fazed harmlessly though the illusions body.

_A Bunshin?_ Naruto thought in bewilderment bewildered as he roughly landed on the ground, shoulder first, rolling to break the impact of his short fall.

Clambering to his feet, Naruto glanced around the clearing, trying to find where the ANBU had gone. The clearing was barren save for a few leaves torn from the trees and drifting in the breeze.

A sound; the creak of a branch in canopy of trees nearest to him. It was so faint he almost missed it.

Naruto reacted instinctually, throwing himself to the side and curling into a ball. He wasn't a second to late, a kunai shot into the ground where he'd been just a moment ago, the steel kicking up a small spray of dirt and grass from the force of its impact.

Before he could right himself again, he was hit by a blow to his ribcage that sent him sprawling across the clearing, finally stopping when he collided with a rock that snapped his head back. His vision flickered for a moment before clearing. Chakra lent the body several wonderful traits. Increased, strength, stamina, and most importantly for Naruto at the moment, the ability to endure more damage than what would ordinarily be possible.

Naruto slumped against the rock with his eyes closed, feigning unconsciousness. His right arm was pressed under his back, while his left draped across his legs from where he sat. If he pretended to be unconscious, maybe the ANBU would think him knocked out and lower his guard. He tightened his grip with his numbed fingers on the kunai he'd managed to keep in hand as he tumbled. He would use the weapon as a distraction and then take that opportunity to either strike or escape.

"Do you like stories, kid?" The ANBU asked from a few feet away.

_Stories?_ Naruto thought sluggishly. _Is now really the time for stories? _

"I like stories." The crazy ANBU continued. "Long tales some call them - Stories that have dragons and princes that need saving from princesses… or something along those lines. I like them all. I'm here because of a story told by a old man who claimed to have heard it from a old toad, if you'd believe it." Naruto blinked. If he could keep the ANBU talking for a few moments longer he might be able to get enough feeling back into his fingers to throw the weapon with some degree of accuracy. He'd never been the best marksman in the academy. But with the ANBU this close, he'd be hard pressed to miss, not to mention it'd be near impossible to dodge at this range. "While I respect the old man, I find the ramblings of an amphibian a bit difficult to swallow, no matter how intelligent the old man claims them to be."

Naruto's fingers began to tingle as sensation returned to them. Pressing his head against the stone and arching his back, Naruto whipped his arm out around his body and threw the dagger with all the strength his body could muster.

Naruto stared as the ANBU caught the weapon with two fingers before his chest, displaying an indifferent grace that bordered on precognition. The thought that the ANBU would have been able to _catch_ the kunai hadn't even crossed his mind. Hell, he hadn't thought that the man would have been able to dodge.

"Impressive stamina." The ANBU stated lazily as he stepped on Naruto's chest, pressing him against the rock and forcing the air from his lungs. "I had thought for sure that you'd been knocked out after you'd hit your head. You sure can take a blow, can't you?"

Naruto grit his teeth even as he struggled for breath, glaring at the ANBU who stood above him. He wasn't going to give the ANBU the satisfaction of hearing him beg for mercy.

"Well, you have my vote, as I promised, but you're going to have to convince Konoha's best interrogator of your innocence before you're let go."

The ANBU vanished and for the second time that day the world blurred the sudden sense of weightless vertigo and nausea gripped his stomach. Squeezing his eyes shut, he fought back the urge to vomit even as he felt his body land in a wooden chair. He knew it was wooden because the carpenter seemed to have forgotten to sand it smooth if the splinters in his butt were anything to go by.

"Welcome." A gruff voice that sounded like rocks rubbing together said.

Naruto lost the battle with his stomach. Still with his eyes closed, he leaned forward and dry heaved, the blow to his head and lack of meal having left his stomach with nothing to evacuate. After another four empty heaves, he slowly managed to pull himself together. Wiping a bit of dribble from his mouth with the sleeve of his orange jumper, Naruto looked around, blinking with dry eyes.

He was in a small stone chamber occupied only by himself, a small wooden desk at which a giant of a man dressed in a thick black trench coat with silver buttons sat. The man's face appeared to have been on the wrong end of something sharp. Two long scars ran over his face, one extending from the left jawline to just under his left eye, and the other running from the middle of his jaw, bifurcating his lips and curling around his right eye.

_Where did the dog ANBU go?_ Naruto wondered, unable to detect a hint of the ANBU in the room.

"Water?" The man asked, his deep brown eyes never wavering from Naruto's own.

"Who are you?" Naruto asked in a raspy voice, wincing as his throat submitted protest at the use.

"Morino Ibiki. Drink."

Ibiki pushed a glass of liquid towards Naruto across the table. Naruto took the cup, clasping the cool glass in both hands before giving the scared man a wary glance – the drink could be poisoned. Growing up on the streets taught you very quickly not to trust anyone that simply handed you liquids – not unless you saw them prepare it before hand.

Glancing up, Naruto met the eyes of his captor. The man stared at him placidly with a face that was completely unreadable.

_The Hokage wouldn't let some lunatic drag me off unless he wanted me here._ Naruto reasoned.

Somehow, the thought didn't comfort him.

He drank. The blessedly cool liquid slid down his throat like ambrosia gifted directly from the gods. Quickly, desperately quickly, the water was gone. Naruto gave the cup a mournful expression as he set it back down on the table, wishing there was more.

"Naruto Uzumaki…" The man said, picking up a folder that had been resting on the desk. What was his name again? He hadn't been paying attention. "Age: Thirteen. Hair color: blond. Eye color: blue. Bottom of the class with several reprimands for disrespect and a blatant disregard for authority."

Naruto's eyes sharpened. He was paying attention now. Every one of his instincts was screaming at him to get up and leave, but he was rooted to the spot by curiosity. The man continued on without pause.

"Has no friends outside of two cooks that run a small ramen stand a mile away from the academy. No discernable skills or abilities to be mentioned."

The man dropped the folder, locking distinctly unfriendly eyes with Naruto.

"You've lived on your own since the age of seven when you managed to get yourself kicked out of the orphanage. You fell into the wrong crowd and have been working as a minor thief for a small time crime boss until you entered the academy and started receiving money from the government for rent and food. On the whole you are a waste of the tax payers money to be trained as a ninja."

"I'm going to become Ho-"

"Silence." The man hissed in his gravely voice, cutting Naruto off mid-rant. "I was not finished."

The man steepled his fingers before him, leaning forward and staring at him with eyes that made Naruto feel like his soul was being picked apart and examined. He also had the distinct feeling that he was being found wanting.

"You are a waste and yet… You are here."

"Where is here?" Naruto blurted before he could stop himself.

"Here is either a place you will forget completely, or the only place that will have significance after we are done talking."

Naruto gulped. He wasn't good at riddles, but this one wasn't too difficult to figure out.

"You're going to kill me." He said, voice quavering slightly.

The man chuckled mirthlessly as a thin-lipped smile creasing his face, though neither emotion ever reached his eyes.

"No. That would be an even greater waste. As it stands you are woefully inept. Your chakra control scores are the worst in history, not to mention your knowledge of history. I'd be surprised if you knew what a Genjutsu was, your own fantasies consume so much of your life. Hokage? I wouldn't trust you to deliver my mail." The man said, a hint of expectance entering his eyes.

He was waiting for something. What that was, Naruto hadn't a clue. But the man's words had set Naruto's blood on fire. Who was this man to criticize him! HIM! What did the man know about what he'd been through? NOTHING!

"Come on, boy. Say something intelligent."

A flare of annoyance leapt to life in his chest. Who was this man to have pulled him from his extra credit assignment and then make demands?

"Something intelligent." Someone said. Naruto was dismayed to discover that it was he who said it.

A bark of laughter that sounded like a firecracker going on a steel tin exploded from the man.

"At last." He growled. "So there is something buried in there."

The jury had been out of this man before, but now Naruto had come to the decision that he didn't like this man.

"I think I'll be leaving now, dattebayo." Naruto said as calmly as he could, standing up from where he sat.

"As you wish." The man said, nodding his head towards him, though not showing any signs of rising to stop him. "You may leave during these proceedings if you wish."

Naruto made his way towards the door that was behind him, reaching his hand for the knob.

"However, you'll never have any of your questions answered if you do. Why are you here, boy? What do you want from life? But more importantly: Why do people hate you so much?"

Naruto froze, hand hovering just over the knob. The polished steel reflected his distorted image back at him. The three whisker-like birthmarks on each of his cheeks staring back at him accusingly. He hated them. They marked him as different, as something else, something feral and, apparently, dangerous.

He wasn't an idiot. Well, he wasn't a complete idiot. He knew that he was treated differently than the others of his age group, and it wasn't just in that he was an orphan. They hated him and he didn't know why.

Naruto spun, whirling to face the scared man who still sat behind the desk.

"Sit down." The man commanded. "We'll start again."

Naruto did as commanded, though he did so slowly in an effort to show that he still maintained some marginal control over the situation. Once seated, they regarded each other for a moment. Eventually it was the man behind the desk that broke the silence.

"My name is Morino Ibiki. I and a colleague of mine was tasked to interview certain individuals from the village."  
"Why?" Naruto asked.

"To train the next Sanin, and perhaps more." Ibiki responded, leaning forward. "But everything has a price. While training, you will have no free time, no regular team, and most certainly no attachments. You will both compete and team with the other prospects, going on missions with whatever team composition we deem necessary. This will be your life until you either fail and we discard you or you succeed and become what we forge you to be."

"What would that be?" Naruto asked, not only a little intimidated by the serious glint in Ibiki's eyes.

"What would you like to be?" Ibiki asked, leaning back and propping his feet up on the table comfortably. The scared man was so completely at ease that it made Naruto want to relax as well.

"I have a choice?" Naruto was taken aback by the sudden shift in Ibiki's manner.

When he'd first laid eyes on the harsh looking man he'd expected exactly what he'd received: Unrelenting and critical accusations. Suddenly the man was looking at him level-headedly, asking him in a moderate tone what he expected of himself. And Naruto'd be damned but he believed the offer to be real.

"We all do." Ibiki said, with a shrug. "But the higher your demand, the higher the price."

The decision was easy. It was what he wanted – what he always wanted.

"I want to be Hokage." Naruto said seriously, leaning forward and putting his palms on the table, meeting Ibiki's firm eyes with his own.

Wordlessly Ibiki gestured towards to his right, indicating a door that Naruto swore wasn't there a moment ago.

"The choice is yours."

"You never told me why people hate me." Naruto stated distractedly, looking at the door skeptically.

"Figure it out for yourself, boy. I've given you no less than three hints during our conversation. It'll be a puzzle from me to you, no tricks."

"We'll meet again?" Naruto asked.

"Of course, boy."

Naruto stood. Without looking back he strode to the door, yanked it open and stepped through.

**Line Break**

An Uchiha was never surprised; therefore he was never caught off guard. So the involuntary muscle spasm when the unseen had was placed on his shoulder was nothing more than the readiness to strike and not a flinch of fear. That was what he told himself at least.

"You must be thirsty. Have a drink." Said the blond man behind the desk situated in the exact center of the small stone room they were both occupying.

Sasuke glared at the blond haired middle-aged man who was studiously scribbling on an unfurled scroll, ignoring him beyond asking him if he wanted a drink.

"You've asked me that already and I've told you no. Tell me what I'm doing here already." Sasuke said with agitation.

The man continued to write, gazing intently through spectacles at his work without glancing up, his hand carefully scrawling out line after line of text Sasuke couldn't read from the angle he was sitting out.

"What am I doing here, you myopic cur." Sasuke demanded.

"Not drinking." The man replied absentmindedly, picking up his scroll and inspecting it for a moment before replacing it on the desk and resuming his writing.

"Would you stop writing and pay attention to me?" Sasuke all but screamed, loosing control of his temper.

"And why should I?" The man asked, still not looking up.

"Because it's polite." Sasuke growled back. Now that the man had stopped talking about the glass of water, he finally felt like he was making some headway.

"And yet, you haven't introduced yourself, even after I did when you first arrived. Were you not paying attention? It's impolite, you see?"

Sasuke bit back his scathing retort and opted instead to swallow some pride and introduce himself.

"Uchiha Sasuke." He ground out.

"Hardly the optimal, but it is a start." The blond haired man set the paper down, took off his glasses and folded them, stuffing them in his pocket. "I'll reintroduce myself. My name is Yamanaka Inoichi, co-chief interrogator and Jōnin of Konoha. I'll be your interviewer today."

"Interviewer?" Sasuke asked, intrigued.

"Yes." Inoichi said musingly. "Myself and a few others in my division were asked to go through the people who had the will to do what was asked of them, even for the little gain they would receive from it. We were asked to then interview them and see if we think them capable of becoming something great."

Sasuke grunted. He was already great. He just had to graduate and then become trained by someone who could use his talents. Then, and only then, could his ambitions be fulfilled.

"It is a shame the famed Uchiha Sasuke is not what we're looking for. Sorry to have wasted your time. The door is directly behind you." Inoichi said, gesturing to the door.

Sasuke frowned, the hairs on the back of his neck bristling in agitation.

"What do you mean?" He asked in a low voice.

Inoichi picked up the scroll he'd been working on, this time Sasuke caught words written on the edge of the parchment; his name.

"Perfect scores, excellent chakra control, and the paradigm of marksmanship, not to mention fine breeding among Konoha's nobility."

"How does this not make me qualified?" Sasuke growled.

"It makes you more than qualified." Inoichi said flippantly, rolling up the scroll and tossing it on the desk, his feet following.

Sasuke felt his eye twitch. How had this man made rank? He showed no decorum, no discipline.

"Answer the question, then. How am I unqualified?"

"You see the fun thing about being the one in charge is that I don't have to answer that." Inoichi flashed a wide toothed grin at him. "But I'll humor you and tell you anyway. It's because of your arrogance."

"Are you questioning my skills?" Sasuke asked, affronted.

Inoichi snorted in amusement.

_Unbefitting a ninja. _Sasuke thought scathingly. _This indolent insect is only in my way._

"And there it is." Inoichi said cheerfully. Sasuke blinked in surprise. Was the man reading his mind? "What do you know of being a ninja?" Inoichi continued. "Your brother hardly counts. Last I checked he's still retains his S-ranked Missing Nin status. And from what I'm picking up from you, I give it one year tops before you follow in his footsteps."

"How dar-"

"And since you don't have a family to slaughter," Inoichi said over him.  
"You're going to harm whoever is closest to you. But since you're so clever, you've alienated just about everyone from the academy from you. So that just leaves the entire village in danger."

Inoichi leaned forward, all hint of friendly cheerfulness vanishing from his hardened face, his eyes becoming a bone-chilling icy blue. Suddenly, Sasuke was intimately familiar with why this man had achieved the rank he had. Sasuke shivered slightly, when had the room become so cold?

"And it is my duty to ensure that nothing, I repeat NOTHING, endangers my village. You are a walking psychological disaster waiting to happen."

"The academy phychologis-"

"Opinion means absolutely nothing to me." Inoichi said, the former cheerfulness returning with bi-polar speed.

"You can't-"

"I can and will…" Inoichi trailed off, then added as if an after-thought, "unless you submit to a few of my whims."

Sasuke clenched his fists in anger. He needed this training. The way this Jōnin dangled it over his head it was clearly superior to anything he'd get if he graduated the regular way.

Sasuke's father's voice rang in the recesses of his mind. _Sasuke, you must be brilliant and the best. You must be industrious or you are worthless. The only thing that matters is success._

_I know, father. I'm trying._ Sasuke thought back angrily. His ghost of his father's voice had always been there. Ever since… Itachi.

"What do you want?" Sasuke bit out.

Inoichi's head cocked slightly, eyes glittering as he inspected him.

"In addition to training and the regular physical checkups, I want you to see me every weekend where we'll discuss your feelings."

"I don't have feelings." Sasuke spat with a disgusted expression as he said the word 'feelings'.

"We'll fix that in time." Inoichi said with a patronizing smile.

_I'll let this pathetic excuse of a man think he's won._ _I'll take this training and endure his conversations until he thinks I'm just as 'normal' as the rest of this pathetic population of miscreants. I've placated the academy shrinks. I'll placate him._ Sasuke mentally planed.

Inoichi's smile widened disconcertingly. Could the Yamanaka really read his mind without handsigns?

_No._ Sasuke thought, shaking his head. _That's impossible._

"What may please does not contend. All resolves but never ends." Inoichi said cryptically.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Sasuke asked ruefully.

"You'll understand if you don't fail out." Inoichi responded, pushing back his seat and standing up, holding out his hand to Sasuke who looked at it as if it were something disgusting he'd scrapped off the bottom of his shoe.

"Shake my hand." Inoichi instructed.

Sasuke did so, clasping hands with the blond interrogator.

"I look forward to meeting with you in the future." Inoichi said, gesturing to the side.

Sasuke followed the gesture and blinked in surprise. When had that door gotten there? He was always alert for any signs of genjutsu or a trap. How had someone smuggled in a framed door when he wasn't looking? For the second time in this relatively short meeting he'd been surprised. He was not okay with this trend they had started.

"The choice is yours, Uchiha. Your price must be paid."

"My price?" Sasuke asked. "You never mentioned a price in your demands."

"It is the price all ninja pay at some point, don't worry about it. You'll tell me about it when you discover what that is."

_Unlikely._ Sasuke thought with a snort as he turned towards the door.

"I'll see you in a few days." Inoichi called out as Sasuke opened the door and stepped through. "If you make it that long, that is."

**Line Break**

Sakura sat trembling in her seat as the purple haired woman that sat – no, prowled – with her feet on the seat of the chair, one arm resting on bent knee as she idly picking at her teeth with a dango stick. She gazed at her with her purple, pupil-less eyes that made getting any sympathetically emotional reading from the woman difficult. All that left Sakura with was the fear.

The woman dressed in the tan trench coat over a chain fishnet mesh radiated the feeling of impending and unavoidable death like a predator standing over its pray, talons sunk into flesh to the bone.

"I think I'll call you 'leaf'." The woman commented with a twirl of the stick before reinserting it into her mouth. "Because you shake like one." She said through clenched teeth gripping the wood.

"Y-yes Ma'am." Sakura stuttered.

"Name's Anko." Anko corrected cheerfully with another twirl.

Sakura nodded, not trusting herself to speak without a scream. What was wrong with her?

"Kinda pathetic, don't ya think?" Anko drawled over her dango stick. "I'm hardly trying and you look ready to vomit."

"Y-You're doing this to me?" Sakura managed to get out. "W-Why?"

"Because I haven't decided if I want to spare Konoha the embarrassment of producing a Shinobi such as you. 'ol man Hokage probably wouldn't even bat an eye if I told him a potential liability was thwarted. I'd have to clean the body, of course, but taking out the trash only takes so long when you're as practiced as I am."

This time Sakura did vomit, or tried to at least. Anko hadn't offered her the water sitting on the desk just in front of her and she'd been far too afraid to ask. So the best she could manage were a couple heaves before regaining control of her body.

"Pathetic." Anko repeated, disgust mingled with distain plain on her face as she wrinkled her nostrils. "When I heard I was going to get to interview the top female ninja of the class I was expecting a lot more than…_ you_."

Anko's inflection of the word you made Sakura cringe. Suddenly, all of her accomplishments and high marks seemed so insignificant coming out of the mouth of the snake-like woman crouched before her. It was taking over ounce of her self control not to reach over to the desk, grab one of the pens on the table, and end it all with one desperate plunge.

Her fingers twitched and her heart stopped.

"Its' lucky for you that I'm required to offer you a choice. If I hada my way the disposal squad would be packing you in a black bag at the moment. But the Hokage just wants one simple answer from you. Yes or no?"

"Yes or n-no what?" Sakura asked in a small voice, her hands wringing the hem of her vest with single-minded fervor. Better that than the alternative.

"The Hokage's booting up a new program." Anko explained as she rocked backwards and forwards on her chair with an easy grace. "For worse or disaster, you've managed to get your name on the list. And so, I've gots ta ask ya if you want to enter a special training program that's being formed. You've gone and burdened me with informing you that you're probably going to die within the next few weeks if ya accept."

"What?" Sakura asked with wide eyes, a mix of emotions running through her.

She had been selected for a special program? That pleased her, however, her enjoyment of the news was rather damped by the prediction of her death.

"Ta." Anko said amiably. "I can't say that I know all of the details. The upper brass are being rather tight-lipped about their little game, but I know enough to say a little wilting flower such as yourself stands no chance making it through the first couple 'a weeks, never mind a solid year."

Anko leaned forward conspiratorially and Sakura had to fight back the urge to throw herself backwards and out of her chair to escape.

"Between you and me, I'm a betting woman - good at it too. If you join, I have very solid money on two weeks before you crap out."

"What's the training?" Sakura squeaked, her knuckles white.

"Classified." Anko chirped, leaning back again which made Sakura sigh audibly. "But as I understand, it makes training that regular students go through after basic graduation look like children playing Ninja."

Sakura stared mutely at the woman. She didn't know what to say. What would make the woman happy? More importantly, what would make her go away? She'd say anything to achieve either of those goals.

Anko sighed, rubbing the back of her neck with one hand in an exasperated fashion.

"Figures that I'd get the stupid one." She muttered just loud enough for Sakura to hear.

"I'm not stupid." Sakura blurted before she could stop herself.

Anko's eyes snapped and latched onto Sakura's own with paralyzing speed.

"What was that?" Anko purred, leaning forward and placing her hands on the desk, sliding forward. "I didn't quite catch it."

"I-I-I'm not stupid." Sakura said as best she could. There was no hand around her throat but for the world Sakura would have said there was.

Anko hummed in amusement, as she pulled up face-to-face with her, eyes scanner Sakura's for something.

"No." Anko said after a long moment. "You're a complete idiot."

Anko withdrew, flopping back into her chair, which groaned in protest.

"Shut up." Anko told it, shooting a scathing glance downwards. "I haven't given you permission to fall apart yet."

The woman was insane, Sakura realized. She was trapped in a room with a psychopathic woman who was likely to snap at any moment. What had she done to deserve this?

"Anyways," Anko said, snapping Sakura out of her contemplations about her imminent and untimely demise. "I need an answer from you. You gonna wimp out and play the safe route in the academy, or are you gonna woman up? Come on, come on, I haven't got all day."

"I-I'll take the safe route." Sakura stuttered out.

Anko growled and her lip curled in distain as she picked up a scroll from the table. Sakura was able to make out her name printed on the side.

"Get out then. The door is behind you. I'll tell the Hokage that his opinion of you was baseless." Anko chuckled. "In fact, you inspire me. I'll make sure the entire village knows just how cowardly you are. What would your classmates say, I wonder?"

Sakura paled, as her bloodless fingers tightened on her vest.

"You wouldn't." She whispered.

Sasuke would hear about her. How could he not? He would hear how she had backed out of an opportunity like this and he probably wouldn't even look at her again.

"And before you go back on your decision, know that I won't accept anything less than total commitment. I brought up your friends, not to motivate you, but as a warning. If you accept this based on your fear of what others might think of you. You're going ta fail for sure. I want you to look me in the eyes and convince me that you're worth the effort it'll take to show you the door."

Sakura looked down and could almost hear her bones cracking with the strength she was gripping her vest. With every fiber of her being she wanted to look this woman in the eyes and tell her that she wasn't a coward, that she wasn't afraid of the offer.

But she was.

Gods was she afraid. By the way this... this _thing _was eyeing her like a slab of meat put on display, this training would be the death of her. What kind of people did that to another? Didn't they have any sympathy?

"No sympathy." Anko crooned causing Sakura's neck to snap audibly as she looked up, adamantly refusing to meet the woman's eyes, opting instead to stare at her mouth. How had she known?

"No remorse." Anko continued. "We are ninjas. Feelings such as pity and empathy are put on hold when we fight to defend our homes. In this little show you have to be in all the way, or not at all. You'll just end up dead otherwise. If you're lucky you won't take anyone with you."

"You'll be teaching me?" Sakura asked with dread.

"Heavens no, girl. I haven't the time nor inclination to deal with kids. Others have that particularly onerous task."

Relief flooded Sakura at that particular revelation. Maybe she had a chance after-all. If her instructor turned out to be anything like her academy teachers, then she would be fine. She was good at tests and she had always been allowed to get out of spars.

"No. I haven't the inclination to watch you fall off a cliff because you weren't strong enough to keep hold. I've seen kids gut themselves with their own weapons before, because they were either incompetent or couldn't handle the pressure. It looses its' entertainment value after the hundredth or so time."

Anko chuckled again, white teeth flashing.

"I'll just be around long enough for them to cart your worthless ass out of the area to have your memory wiped. I'll be sure to wave, promise."

"My memory will be wiped?" Sakura asked, too afraid to even stutter.

"Standard operating procedure." Anko commented in an off-handed kind of way. "How do you think we keep knowledge of chakra limited to just ninjas? Your parents signed the waver when you were admitted into the academy and received your seal."

"My seal?" Sakura asked, despite herself.

"MM-hmmm." Anko hummed. "Time stamped to go off and wipe everything you've learned since you first set foot inside the academy's walls. Your family will receive a small stipend, of course. Kinda a consolation gift for the family of the newly made eight-year old mentally girl. Ah, that expression you've got on now always makes my heart sing. The suspense, the realization that there isn't anything you can do. It's wonderful."

A new feeling burst to life in Sakura's chest that overpowered fear, logic, and rational, brushing them aside with almost casual dismissal. She was angry.

"I'm not a coward." Sakura snapped angrily, her green eyes meeting Anko's brown. "I'm not worthless. I'm going to enter this program and I'm going to pass. Not you or anyone is going to stop me, even if I have to storm the Hokage's tower right now."

Anko's grin widened, her eyes twinkling with predatorily amusement.

"The door is to your right."

Sakura stood with rage-fueled strength that sent the chair skittering away behind her. Without even stopping to wonder where the door had come from, she stomped over to it and flung it open.

"Ta." Anko called out to her as Sakura stormed from the room and slammed the door shut behind her. "I'll be seeing you real soon with your other teachers." Anko said to the empty room. "You see, I'm a pretty good liar. And half-truths are always the easiest."

**Line Break**

Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, sat in his office with the four people he assigned to interview the kids who'd either shown an aptitude for combat or had managed to endure the pre-test. Yamanaka Inoichi with his hands clasp together, Nara Shikaku who looked ready to nod off to sleep, Mitarashi Anko who was chewing on her dango stick a little more fervently than usual, and Morino Ibiki with his straight-backed posture, each sat on the sofa in situated before his desk. He'd had the sofa brought in specifically for this meeting.

Shikaku was a lazy, if supremely intelligent shinobi that served as his general and troop overseer. The man didn't so much as sit as he slumped on the sofa, as if prepared to fall asleep at a moments notice. His dress, however, didn't match his demeanor. His green Jōnin's uniform was well ironed and the cufflinks at the sleeves polished to perfection as were his combat boots.

"Eleven?" Sarutobi asked, looking at the short list in front of him. "There were twenty-six in just the academy chamber. Out of the one hundred ninja and ninja prospects you interviewed this was the best you could do?"

Everyone but Ibiki had the good sense to look slightly abashed at his question. Anko shifted uncomfortably and Inoichi rubbed the back of his neck while Shikaku's lids half-closed. Ibiki didn't even twitch; he just sat there with that implacable expression on his face.

With a sigh, Sarutobi glanced down at the list of names once more. He was pleased that Naruto had made it. The boy had been dealt a bad hand in life and he did the best he could under the circumstances. He met with the child whenever his schedule allowed it, which wasn't too often and not nearly as frequently as either of them would have liked.

"Is there anything I should know?" Sarutobi asked, looking over the top of his paper at his advisors.

"Everything went as expected on my end." Shikaku said in a clear voice, once again displaying his presence of mind in spite of how he drooped in his seat. "The kids were fairly eager to have the opportunity to join a specialized training program. My son required a bit of cajoling but I just had to mention the fact that his mother would hear about his refusal and he chose the less dangerous of the two paths. When faced with speculative training and a decent chance of permanent injury, or facing my wife, my son chose the wiser coarse. At least this way he'll probably live to see the end of the month."

Sarutobi nodded. He'd met Shikaku's wife on a few occasions. The woman was probably the only reason Shikaku got up in the morning. She had quite the temper Shikaku's wife did.

"And the three I mentioned?" Sarutobi asked. "They're names are on the paper so I assume they accepted willingly?"

"Yeah." Anko snorted in her typical brusk manner. "The pink one, what's her name, required a… forceful hand. I've seen jellyfish with stiffer spines than that girl. If she'd gone with her initial instinct, she would have ran from the room the first chance she got. In the end though, she agreed. She, along with the others, are probably being bunked as we speak."

"Good." Sarutobi said. "And you, Inoichi?"

"Uchiha Sasuke has been pampered for most of his life." Inoichi replied. "He excels in just about everything he does, but that's because he has an inferiority complex so convoluted that it has manifested as near schizophrenia."

"Come again?" Anko asked, looking at Inoichi with a raised eyebrow.

"He hears his father's voice." Inoichi answered flatly. "And his father was never the kindest of people. Sasuke expects all ninja to be like his father and brother; cold, calculating, stiff and informal, with a strong sense of hierarchy, and he becomes angered when they do not fit his perception of what a ninja should be. The entitlement he feels his family should receive and the reinforcement of this attitude he got from the academy have led him to believe that he is on the top of the social chain. Throughout our meeting I dangled what he wanted in front of him so that he'd meet me half way, all the time acting contrary to what he expects from high-ranking shinobi. It's the first step in many I plan to have him make throughout this experiment. In short, the boy's grown up with a false self-image of himself and I've given him a little harsh truth."

Sarutobi nodded, pleased that – if the gods willed it – they might have one Uchiha that had at least a few of his marbles. Inoichi was the best psychologist Konoha had to offer and had never steered Sarutobi wrong in matters of the mind. He was the only man Sarutobi trusted to handle the unstable Uchiha.

"I sense that Uzumaki's had a bit too much of that in his life." Ibiki put in heavily. "From the reports I thought that he'd be like the Uchiha and would possess a falsely pretty view of his skills." Ibiki held up a hand to forestall Sarutobi's rebuke. "My mind changed once I talked the boy myself. I should have suspected sooner now that I look back on how the boy checked the drink for poisons. Naruto knows exactly how bad he is and covers it with false bravado. If he doesn't crack under the pressure the instructors will be putting him under during the first few months, Naruto will more than likely thrive."

Sarutobi didn't bother trying to keep the pride from his face. Naruto would make a fine ninja, he'd always known. The kid just needed the right instructors.

"Then I'll expect another report by the end of the month. Dismissed."

**End of Chapter One**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: HELLO. Very enthusiastic. You'll notice Sasuke's way of speaking a bit different from cannon. This is because for someone of his supposed breeding, I felt it fitting that he speak with a bit more… diction, shall we say. I'll try and stay as true to his character otherwise. The same with Sakura and Naruto with a few tweaks to fit the slightly altered backgrounds I've given them. I'm a sorry Sakura fans, all I can say is that she'll get better.**

**Chapter Two**

**The Gambler and the Monk**

_Though my actions may seem questionable to my friends, I know that what I'm doing is right. It's for the greater good. Oh how that phrase has paved even the worse of roads with good intentions. I can only hope that I am the exception to the rule._

_**Line Break**_

Naruto didn't look back as he strode to the door, yanked it open and stepped through into a much larger underground chamber lit by large electric lights that hung down from the ceiling illuminating a large black scoreboard on the far wall.

_This place could house a small army._ Naruto thought with wonder as he looked around.

Catching the scent of water, Naruto looked down and saw that he was standing on a metal grate. The grate connected to, and interlaced with, a large network of subterranean water flows that formed small box areas of equal size.

"Uzumaki Naruto?" A lazy voice asked from directly behind Naruto.

Naruto's heart nearly stopped. Twice now within the same day someone had snuck up on him without his hearing. This was starting to become a _very_ disconcerting habit they seem to have started.

Spinning around, he saw a silver haired man who appeared in his mid twenties, dressed in a green Jōnin's vest and black trousers. A Konoha headband was slung sideways on his head so that it covered his right eye just as a mask covered the lower half of his face. He held an orange book in a gloved right hand, left tucked under his right armpit. His brown eye scanned the book's page with a rapid and surprisingly intense fervor that led Naruto to believe that it wasn't him who had called if they weren't the only two in the cavernous room.

"What?" Naruto asked.

"Yup." The man said, snapping the book shut and stuffing it in his side pouch. "You're him."

"Me?" Naruto asked, confused.

The Jōnin looked around the empty cavern before returning his one-eyed gaze back to Naruto.

"Do you see anyone else around here?" He asked.

Naruto blushed in embarrassment.

"No." He said in a reluctant tone. "I don't."

"Then we can assume… what?"

"You don't have to be a bastard about it." Naruto grumbled.

"No, I don't, but it's fun." The man said cheerfully, giving Naruto a weird

half-smile with the closed, upward curving of his eyelid. On the whole, Naruto found being on the receiving end of his quasi smile quite disconcerting.

"My name's Kakashi and I'll be taking you to your bunk today."

"A Jōnin escorting me?" Naruto asked with surprise.

"Mm-hmm." The man hummed, stepping forward and waving for Naruto to follow.

He did so, falling into line behind the white haired man as they made their way towards a small spec of a door at the other end of the room.

"You see." Kakashi continued. "You're now part of a rather secret program. If it succeeds, it'll replace how the academy handles it's pregraduation for certain qualified children."

"_If?_" Naruto asked a bit too loudly and not at all pleased with the word.

"We're going to work you until you beg for death." Kakashi said with disturbing carelessness. "You're going to be sweating, bleeding, begging, for it to end, and that'll be before lunch."

Kakashi turned to look back at Naruto as he continued to walk. "Welcome to Sheol." He said with another one of those eye smiles. Another trend Naruto suspected he would grow to dislike.

Naruto fixed his attention on the door resolutely. He wasn't going to give Kakashi the satisfaction of seeing just how unnerved he was. This was all so new and he felt as though he were struggling to keep pace. Where he grew up - the outer factions of Konoha - new was almost never a good thing. Konoha policed her inner and far richer sections well, but the village had yet to recover well enough to run strict patrol over the peripheral districts where he initially grew up before joining Konoha's academy and receiving a small monthly stipend to move into a small apartment near the school.

"No reaction?" Kakashi asked, causing Naruto too look up and face the Jōnin who regarded him lazily with his one eye over his shoulder.

"No point." Naruto mumbled, "I'm committed already. No point worrying about it now." Before looking down again.

Naruto could practically feel the cyclope's gaze burning into the top of his head. He knew it was a rather blunt way of looking at things, but he was a practical person by necessity – and his view of the situation seemed a fair enough estimation.

"We're here." Kakashi announced.

Naruto looked up once more to see Kakashi waving with mock grandeur at a steel door set into the wall with heavily reinforced pins. If Naruto didn't know better, he'd have sworn it was a prison door.

"Your bunk is the one at the end. Your personal affects have been moved from your previous residence and sealed into a scroll placed into a box at the foot of your bed. You'll be taught how to unseal them before the week is out."

Naruto blinked in surprise. Sealing? Wasn't that an advanced Genin or even a low Chunin skill? He must have let his surprise show because Kakashi cleared his throat, getting Naruto's attention, before saying, "I was not kidding when I said we're going to be pushing you children. Sealing is a dangerous skill but all it really requires is a steady hand and a bit of chakra control. The reason it is listed as a Chunin skill is because of its impractically for new ninja. You won't have that issue."

"Oh." Was all Naruto could think of to say. What else was there? He was going to be worked into the ground and be made better for it. "You said the bunk at the end. There will be others with me? I thought Ibiki said we were going to be competing against one another."

"On the whole you'll be competing against one another, but Konoha isn't like the bloody mist. We aren't going to have you kill each other at the end." Naruto paled at the Jōnin's words. "You'll be working in a kind of splinter cell, a unified group of three but interchangeable with the other groups when needed. You'll understand once you get the flow of it. Now, in you go. Your bunk mates will be along later once assigned."

Naruto grabbed the door latch and with a heave pulled it open, the door sliding easily and soundlessly on well-oiled hinges. The room beyond was nearly pitch black, illuminated only by the narrow line that streamed in around his frame. He could just barely make out three small cots place in a single file line against the adjacent wall, three iron chests and strange formless locks with swirling marks just before the beds.

"Home sweet home." Kakashi said, flicking a switch on the wall by the door.

Naruto frowned, eyeing a small slot under the switch next to which was a nub in the wall.

"That's the request box." The Jōnin said from beside him, reaching forward and taking hold of the nub, unscrewing it from the wall to reveal a pen. He tapped the area above the slot and a seal appeared, glowing briefly, before disappearing again, but not before a small sheet of paper emerged from the hole. Taking hold of the paper, Kakashi pulled it free and handed it to Naruto, who took it and inspected it. The paper was full of boxes, each of which had small text over them labeled with words such as weapons, instructional, sealing paper, tools, and recreational.

"If you need anything during your stay here just write it down and return it to the slot, someone will see to it that you get what you require. The shower is at the end of the room." Kakashi pointed at a small door by the furthest bunk. "Enjoy your stay."

Kakashi retreated, closing the door behind him as he left. Naruto stood alone in the room with nothing except the phantom pains of his spar with the ANBU earlier. He had always healed quickly, at least for as long as he could remember, but the pain would remain for a day or so before becoming just another memory.

"Yeah." Naruto muttered despondently to the empty room, trudging over to his cot that was more a small collection of sticks and netting than anything, and threw himself on it. His ordeal with the ANBU and subsequent interview – if you could call it that – had left him drained, so it wasn't long before he drifted off, unable to stay awake to greet the other two he'd been lumped in with.

**Line Break**

The sound came like the bellow of a charging forest tiger. Naruto jerked awake, thrashing upright and blinking frantically in an effort to clear his eyes of sleep, the two dark forms beside him writhed similarly in the dim light cast by the lights above. He was usually a light sleeper, but the previous day's prank and subsequent after activities had deepened his sleep more than he usually allowed.

Naruto's eyes widened when he saw what was making the noise. Water. A massive amount of water was streaming into the room through vents in the walls at the four corners of the room. Already the clear liquid had risen several feet the relatively small room.

_The hell! _Naruto thought with panic, his eyes darting to the closed exit doors. _Who removed the door?_

The door he'd come through the other day had disappeared, leaving only a smooth stone slab in its place. Naruto leapt from his cot and water splashed around his legs as he ran to where the door had once been. With nowhere to the water to escape too, he had only moments to escape before the water reached.

"No point." A familiar voice said causing Naruto to whirl around and see a boy his same age with black hair dressed in a blue shirt and black shorts standing in front of where Kakashi had indicated the bathroom to be the other day. Standing beside him was a pink haired girl wearing a red vest and blouse. "They've removed the bathroom as well." Sasuke, the black haired boy, said.

"How do we get out?" Sakura nearly cried. "They must have made a mistake when they assigned us this room!"

_There was no mistake._ Naruto thought, his eyes darting around the room looking for some method of escape- his old instincts from his time on the streets kicking back in. _They said they were going to push us to our limits. They sure haven't wasted any time._

"Up there." Sasuke said, pointing to a metal grate in the ceiling. The shaft door was connected to a wire that ran along the ceiling's length and to the wall where it disappeared. "It's just big enough for one of us to fit through."

"Hoist me up." Naruto said, stepping forward to stand beneath the opening. "I'll hoist you guys up once I'm up there."

"Listen here, my vagabond friend." Sasuke snarled. "I noticed it first, therefor I should go first. Once I'm at the top, and if I feel like it, I'll make sure that the two of you get to safety."

"Fat chance in hell!" Naruto shot back in anger. "Of the two of us, I'm a lot more trustworthy than some spoiled rich kid."

"Had you been blessed with the good fortune of having even barely adequate breeding you would understand and accept that I am your superior by birthright alone, never mind actual skill."

"I'd rather just wait for the water to rise and allow me to escape." Naruto snapped with a glare. "At least then I don't have to touch your delicate body."

"The grate." Sakura said nervously. The water that had risen to their waist now.

Naruto looked up again. The grate was slowly sliding closed, the silver glow of a seal around the frame indicating how the metal was making its supernal movement.

"It's closing as the water rises." She said speaking to Sasuke, tears pricking at the corners of her eyes. "I didn't notice it at first, the idiot was arguing with you and not letting me focus. Unless we get up there soon it's going to close."

"Lift me up." Sasuke commanded her.

Sakura paled even further than she already had given the situation, the contrast between her skin and hair was quite the sight.

"I'm not strong or tall enough." She said.

"You're a ninja, enhance your strength chakra." Sasuke snapped impatiently.

Sakura's eyes widened further, sweat beading at the sides of her larger than average forehead.

"I'm not very good at the, ah, more physical aspects of chakra." She said weakly.

Naruto turned away from them as Sasuke snapped out a retort. He wasn't going to touch that stuck-up, rich prick unless it was to knock him one to the moon. There were other ways to survive this without giving in to Sasuke's demands.

Walking over to the cots, Naruto grasped one of the cots that were completely submerged now, intending to lift it up so he could wedge one of the edges of the frame in between the grate and opening to prevent it from closing fully. Then, all he had to do was wait for the water to raise enough to get his hands on the metal and push it out of the way. The only problem with that plan was that the cots were bolted to the ground. Naruto gave it another good shake, this time enhancing his muscles with chakra to give himself more strength.

The frame didn't even creak. It must have been reinforced with a Seal.

He spun back around at the sound of a splash, turning to see Sasuke sputtering from where he'd tried to jump and grab hold of the grate. Naruto'd already considered that and decided that the water had already risen so much that he'd never be able to jump high enough, even with chakra enhanced legs.

Biting back a curse, Naruto glanced around once more, desperately trying to find _something_ he could use. Life as a thief had given him an ability to think under pressure. Every decision made on the street was the difference between life and death. This was almost like working Korin's beat once more, people he didn't trust and wouldn't depend on and all.

There wasn't anything and now he was now almost treading water. If Sasuke didn't cave in and lift him up soon neither of them were going to able to get a solid enough footing to hoist the other up.

"We're running out of time." Naruto said, sloshing forward to rejoin them. "Lift me up or we're going to die."

The Uchiha glared at him, black eyes unwavering as he held Naruto's gaze. Naruto had to repress the urge to hit the pampered son of a noble in the face.

"I would rather die than help you." Sasuke said, though his voice was hesitant.

Naruto swore, his survival instincts overruling his hatred for nobility. Cupping his hands, he set his stance and renewed his glare at the Uchiha who smirked as he set his foot in Naruto hands in preparation to jump.

"On my three." Sasuke said with a slight smirk.

Naruto was going to harm the Uchiha.

"One."  
No, harming wasn't good enough. He was going to humiliate the prideful Uchiha.

"Two."

That wasn't enough either. He was going to both harm and humiliate the Uchiha.

"Three.

Naruto grunted as he slammed chakra into his arms to give them strength, pushing upward on the Uchiha who was also strengthening his body with chakra. With a sucking splashing, Naruto propelled the raven-haired teen upwards, his hands clapping onto the grate with a wet, slapping sound.

"Good, now hoist us up." Naruto said, looking up at the Uchiha who'd pulled himself up into the shaft and was looking down at them from where the vent took a right turn.

"Why should I?" He asked, his voice cold. "If you die here, part of my competition will already have been removed. Why should I help you?"

Naruto had known this would happen. You couldn't trust nobility. They would always look out for themselves and screw everyone else. It was in their nature.

"Because without us they'll get rid of you." Naruto said. He wasn't sure that was true but he didn't have very many options at the moment. All he could do was go with his gut.

It must have worked because Sasuke hesitated in thought, obviously thinking about Naruto's shot in the dark. Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, Naruto continued.

"If we die Konoha won't train you. They'll never trust you enough to put you on a team or give you a mission that involves a client for fear you'll kill them to if you lose patience. You'll fail your family."

That must have hit a nerve. Sasuke's face contorted in anger for a moment before clearing and regaining its usual blank, noble composure. However, he leaned down, bending at the waist and extended his hand. Naruto quickly turned and grabbed hold of Sakura, lifting her as she briefly voiced her protest before realizing what he was doing.

She took hold of Sasuke's hand and he lifted both her and Naruto - who was still clinging to her waist - up. Chakra was a wonderful and useful thing indeed.

Clambering up into the vent, Naruto fell into a crawl just behind Sakura as they followed the dark tunnel in an effort to escape. After what seemed like an eternity, Naruto felt the disturbingly familiar tingle of water on his hands as he pulled himself forward. The water in the room they had left was still rising and filling the vent they were crawling through.

He nearly stopped moving as claustrophobia seized him and the reality of his situation hit him. He was in a very small tunnel that was steadily filling with water behind two people who saw him as nothing more than gutter trash. The people who owned the vent he was crawling through were apparently unconcerned with their safety. It was not a very tenable position to be in.

Sakura, who had been steadily crawling in front of him, suddenly disappeared, falling downwards.

_What the?_ Naruto thought but was unable to get further than that as the vent shifted beneath him and he began to slid forward and down.

Luckily, the fall was brief and they were dropped out of the enclosure and into the giant room with the electric board he'd been in the other day.

"That was a rather pathetic display of teamwork." An annoyingly familiar lazy voice commented. "Rise and shine. It's time to get started."

The three of them straightened up from where they'd fallen. Naruto's eyes widened as he noticed Kakashi standing just a few feet away, hands locked in a sign. Awed, he watched as the water he'd observed running under the grate the other day leap to life and strike at them like a coiled serpent.

Naruto wasn't fast enough to dodge out of the way of the blast. He choked on the water as he struggled against the torrent, one of his two bunkmates slapping him in the face in their own struggle made his gasp in a lung full of liquid. The water stopped and Naruto coughed violently in an attempt to purge his lungs of the accursed liquid.

"I'll kill you." Naruto rasped out as he cleared his vision, only to blink in surprise when there was no cyclopean ninja anywhere to be seen. "As soon as I see you again." Naruto finished lamely.

"He's fast." Sasuke's seemingly ever present voice said from beside him. Did the Uchiha have to follow him everywhere? First, the academy and now here.

"Figures you'd also be here, bastard." Naruto growled turning to where Sasuke stood with his arms folded, somehow appearing in control despite his soaked clothing, raven hair plastered to the side of his angular, aristocratic face.

Naruto still found faces like Sasuke's slightly unnerving. He had grown up among the rounder faces the 'peasants' and thieves cultivated. Naruto even knew the phycology behind it. The softer, baby-like faces inspired a feeling a trust between mark and thief, making it easier to form a bond and then stab them in the back. Perhaps that's why he'd never made a very good criminal. Whoever bastard him had noble blood in them, passing on to him a strange cross between a hawkish face, with a slight rounding at the cheekbones just above his birthmarks.

"Hn." Sasuke grunted, not even sparing him a glance at the insult.

"Don't insult Sasuke." Sakura said as she picked herself off the ground from where the water had knocked her over.

Naruto still felt chagrined that he'd once had a crush on her when he'd first arrived at the academy. He'd never seen a hair color as vibrant as she had. The less memorable you were as an orphan in the outer district, the longer you lived. The shade of pink Sakura possessed would have made her even more noticeable than he was with his whiskers and blond hair.

"They're lining up in front of the electric board." Sasuke said in his usual controlled tones, pointing forward with an outstretched finger.

Following where Sasuke was indicated, Naruto saw that, indeed, eight other equally sodden people were shuffling into a single file line where the board hung underneath which the Hokage stood, resplendent as ever in his white robes of office.

"Looks like most of our class was accepted into the same program as us." Sakura observed.

"They're the sons and daughters of clan heads." Naruto snorted derisively. "Of course they got in, money pays."

"I'm going." Sasuke said flatly, walking forward and leaving Naruto and Sakura behind.

"I'm coming too." Sakura said in a voice so sweet Naruto wondered if Sasuke could contract diabetes from it. If so, he would need to harness that power and use it himself.

Shrugging, Naruto followed and took up a position in line next to a black haired boy slightly older than himself with pale eyes and dress in a white tunic with matching pants. A Hyuuga? That was interesting, if not unexpected. The class he was in had a female Hyuuga in it. How closely were they related? He didn't know enough of that clan's workings to guess, but he'd heard rumors that they didn't breed outside their own clan that often. They were careful about not marrying to close to the other lines, but refused to 'dilute' their bloodline with the rabble of Konoha.

"Welcome to Sheol." The Hokage greeted them from a slightly elevated dais, opening his arms wide. "It's so nice seeing your young faces looking up at me so early this morning."

Naruto frowned, when had old man Hokage developed such a sadistic sense of humor?

"As you've all been told," the Hokage continued, "this training program has been instated for two reason. The first and primary reason is to find the next set of Sanin. The second is to test this program for future generations of ninja graduating the academy to go through."

The Hokage lowered his hands, clasping them in front of him as he smiled down at them, his brown eyes twinkling.

"I won't delay you long, your instructors are eager to get started, but there are a few things I would like to explain first. You all have been placed in cells of three, with a presiding Jōnin should you require any advice in the future."

The screen behind the Hokage lit up with names. Naruto quickly located his own name inside a bracket with Sakura and Sasuke, Kakashi's name listed just outside.

_Brilliant._ Naruto thought. _Revenge will be easy. I may not have made a great thief, but I'm second to none in pranking. I'll make that one-eyed creep rue the day he messed with Uzumaki Naruto._

"These people are not only your competition but will also be your family for the next year before you begin taking missions with each other. It's then that scores will begin being tallied." The Hokage's smile widened. "Good luck."

Naruto flinched as a man in skintight green spandex appeared in front of him, callused hands at his sides. He had large brown eyes that sat underneath large, caterpillar-like eyebrows. Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto noticed the other students disappearing as, what he assumed to be instructors, appeared behind them and dropped a hand on their shoulder.

"My name is Might Guy and I'll be your sparing partner and instructor for the next five hours. May your Flames of Youth burn brightly." Guy said in an exuberant voice.

Then, without further preamble, Guy attacked with savage intensity. An overwhelming right haymaker from the larger man sent him sprawling across the ground, shattering Naruto's hastily erected guard with apparent ease.

"Your stance is too narrow." Guy said, stepping forward to loom over where Naruto was picking himself off the ground. "When facing an opponent bigger than you are, sacrifices and accommodations must be made. I am faster and stronger than you are, that makes defense your only, youthful, option."

Naruto blinked in surprise. The man was clearly insane. Why else would anyone dress like that?

Guy then spent the next five hours running him through different stances, occasionally stepping over and forcing Naruto's body into certain positions when he failed to understand what exactly he wanted. Naruto had never been the greatest at Taijutsu, and despite his instincts, Naruto found himself liking the instructor. He was critical and brutally direct, not to mention his verbal tick based on the different variations of the word "youthful" but it was a marked change from the airy, dismissful, way people had treated him at the academy. The instructors there often flat-out ignored him because they either fell in with the crowd that hated him for reasons he didn't understand or didn't like him because of his dubious background. And of the two he preferred the later.

The training was like nothing Naruto had ever experienced before. They would switch between instructions and application, where Guy would show him the moves and then test him and see if Naruto had been paying attention. It had only taken once, and just for a split second, when his attention had wandered for the lesson not to let it happen again to be beaten into him. At the academy he'd only been scolded if he'd drifted. Now, Naruto was still nursing the bruised rib along with the myriad of other injuries he had received.

"We're done, my youthful friend." Guy said suddenly from where he had been standing on the 'sidelines' as Naruto had begun to think of the box-like grates, watching him as he went through the Kata. "Take him to my eternal rival." Guy finished with a nod to someone behind Naruto.

This time he was ready for the wrenching sensation that came with the technique, whatever it was, that allowed for near instantaneous transport between points. He hadn't grown any fonder of the experiences, but he could appreciate it for its usefulness.

This time he appeared in what appeared to be an offshoot of the main cavern he'd just been evacuated from, only this place wasn't nearly so large.

_Is that a waterfall?_ Naruto wondered before squeezing his eyes shut and reopening them. The waterfall was still there, a foaming spray that fell from an opening near the ceiling and into a large basin that was drained by a small void at the bottom. If Naruto had to guess, he'd say it was fed by one of the channels that were scattered around Konoha's periphery. Around the basin were large trees, unfamiliar to him, with thick brown trunks and limbs but possessed few leaves that were so indicative of Konoha's surrounding forests. Naruto looked up and found that just like before, this cavern had no opening to the sky. How was the tree fed without sunlight?

"Not too bad." The Cyclopes said from where he was leaning against one of the trees he'd been inspecting, hands folded in front of his chest. Naruto noticed several slashes a few feet above where the masked ninja's head. "You're one of four that didn't puke when brought here."

"Four?" Naruto asked, catching on to the odd number. "I was only sparing for five hours. How could you have been through four people already?"

"Actually, you're the last." Kakashi explained. "Ten little kiddies have already come and gone. You guys are still young and so don't have much chakra. Over the next two weeks you'll be able to last longer, but until then I don't expect too much."

Naruto shifted, wincing slightly as his muscles protested the movement. He'd only been still for just a few moments and already his body was locking up.

"You'll get used to it." Kakashi said, eyeing him with a knowing glint in his one visible eye. "Either that or you'll wash out and not have to worry about it anymore." He finished cheerily. "Here, eat this."

Kakashi flipped him a brown packet that Naruto caught mal-adroitly with exhausted limbs. Sitting down and opening it, Naruto found several pills and a single ration bar.

"Don't make that face." Kakashi chided. "You'll get proper dinners in the evening when you're done training."

"And the pills?" Naruto asked, regarding the small multi-colored tablets dubiously.

"Vitamins and enhancement drugs. Pretty standard for ANBU, if a bit pricy to just be handing out."

"Steroids?"

Kakashi scoffed. "Hardly. And nothing so crude. Just natural supplements to restore what you loose during the day. You'll be eating those for some time, so get used to the taste."

Begrudgingly, Naruto swallowed the pills and downed the ration bar, the grainy texture sticking to his throat uncomfortably.

"Good. Now stand." Kakashi ordered.

Naruto did so slowly, wearily pulling himself to his feet. He hadn't been this exhausted since the old days, back when he'd been a part of Korin's thieving crew. What made it even worse was that it was probably only lunchtime, though it was difficult to tell without a watch or the sun to estimate by.

"Good." Kakashi said curtly. "Now, let's begin. What do you know of chakra?"

Naruto almost groaned. Theoretics? If there were an area worse than his Taijutsu, it would be his grasp on chakra. He'd only recently mastered the ability to hold the leaf to his forehead using only chakra.

"You use chakra to do jutsu… and stuff." Naruto finished lamely, acutely aware just how stupid he sounded.

Kakashi clicked his tongue in irritation that made Naruto's ears burn in embarrassment. It was only the first day and he clearly wasn't making a good name for himself. First, he hadn't been able to land a blow of the green spandex clad weirdo and now he failed to answer a presumably simple question. The difference between him and his competitors suddenly seemed like an insurmountable chasm laid before him.

"It seems as though I'm going to have a very blank slate with you, aren't I?" Kakashi asked with a sigh.

That was something, at least. He hadn't been dismissed out of hand. Naruto drew a bit of comfort from that. He would get better, one chasm at a time.

"Chakra is the blending of physical and spiritual energy used in balance with one another. Now," Kakashi leveled an even, one eyed gaze at Naruto, "I assume you know how to enhance your body with chakra?"

Naruto flushed in embarrassment.

"Yeah." He said stubbornly.

Kakashi nodded.

"Show me."

Naruto flooded his body with chakra. His eyes became sharper and the world leapt into crystalline clarity, each color becoming slightly more vibrant and every sound that much easier to hear, not even the rustling of Kakashi's clothing as he breathed escaped his notice. He clenched his fists, knowing that his strength was much higher than it was a moment ago although his muscles hadn't increased in size.

With an exhale Naruto punched the air, his fist whizzing with the motion. Thanks to Guy's training the phantom attack was a lot more focused and controlled than it had been that morning.

"What is the first rule of chakra manipulation?" Kakashi asked abruptly, his voice louder than a moment ago thanks to his enhanced hearing.

Naruto frowned. What had Iruka said about that? He'd been decided what the best way to clog all the toilets and not get caught that day. Something about...

"I don't know." Naruto said dejectedly.

"Alright. Let me phrase it another way. On the street, what determines whether one person survives or another, ruling out physical advantages?"

Naruto paused, frowning. Ruling out physical advantages then the answer was obviously intelligence, but that couldn't be right. He had been told on numerous occasions that he wasn't smart and yet he'd survived. So obviously there was _something _that set one apart from the other.

"I don't know." Naruto said again.

"There is something you have to understand about chakra, Naruto."

"Another rule?"

"More a philosophy," Kakashi said. "It has to do with consequences."

Naruto's frown deepened.

"What do you mean?"

"Every action we take has consequences, Naruto. I've found that applies to chakra as well as life. The person who can best judge the consequences will be most successful. Take enhancing your strength with chakra for instance, what are its consequences?"

Naruto shrugged.

"You get stronger."

"What happens when you're carrying something heavy when you run low and can't fuel yourself any longer?"

Naruto hesitated.

"I suppose you'd drop it."

"And if its' too heavy you could seriously hurt yourself. Ninja have died because they've shrugged off an injury with chakra only to die of that same wound once their chakra ran out."

"I see." Naruto said quietly.

"HA!"

Naruto jumped in shock, throwing his hands up over his enhanced ears.

"Ow." He complained, glaring at Kakashi.

Kakashi had the audacity to smile.

"Enhancing all of your senses at once has consequences too. If someone produces a flash of light or a loud sound, you can be blinded or stunned." Kakashi explained. "You'll eventually learn to control your chakra well enough to where you can pick and choose which senses you want to enhance and by how much, but for now you have to know when and where to use your abilities."

Kakashi walked over to a seemingly random tree, and turned to face Naruto once more.

"Climb this tree using only chakra." He said.

Naruto felt his eyes widen.

"How?" he asked.

Was such a thing possible? It seemed likely considering what he'd heard some of the high-level jutsu chakra was capable of conjuring, but climbing trees seemed somehow mundane when placed in comparison with fire tornados and flying boulders.

In answer to his question, Kakashi faced the tree, lifted a foot and calmly pressed it against the trunk and proceeded to walk up the tree at a ninety-degree angle as though it were perfectly normal. Naruto gaped as the one-eyed Jounin ascended the tree as though it were the ground.

"Follow me to the top." Kakashi called over his shoulder. "We'll move on to the next step once you've mastered this one."

Naruto watched carefully as the silver-haired ninja pick his way around the bare branches until he came to a stop at a limb still thick enough to support his weight where he stepped down. Pulling a book from his pocket, Naruto observed Kakashi place his back against the tree and slowly slide down until he was reclining comfortably. Then, without a word, the man popped the same orange book he'd been reading when Naruto'd first met him open and resumed where he'd left off.

_The day is only getting older._ Naruto told himself as he wearily made his way over to the tree and stared at it blankly. How the hell was he supposed to do this?

Imitating Kakashi, Naruto lifted a foot and placed it against the trunk. It wasn't made of some sort of powerful Velcro, so that idea was out.

_It must be like the leaf exercise._ Naruto realized with horror. _Instead of using chakra to affix the leaf to my forehead, I'm supposed to stick the bottoms of my feet to the tree._

Channeling chakra to his feet and into the tree, Naruto felt something. It was like a bond or contract of sorts between he and the bark. If he supplied it with chakra, it would allow him to stand. Following through he shifted his weight to the foot on the tree, making as though he were climbing a particularly steep stair. When his foot didn't immediately slide off, he was pleased to find that he was on the right track.

Invigorated by his discovery, Naruto confidently lifted the foot still on the ground and made to put it on the tree. However, his foot attached to the tree only held for a second before gravity reasserted itself and Naruto flailed wildly before hitting the ground with a muffled 'oomph'.

Naruto gazed upwards from where he lay, half expecting some snarky comment from his teacher. He was almost disappointed when he didn't receive even so much as a glance.

_I'm probably not the first to have failed today. I suppose the novelty of seeing students fall off a tree loses its attraction after the first dozen times you've seen it in one day._

Naruto stood and brushed himself off before turning to glare at the tree once more. He wasn't going to be defeated by some leafless abjuration of agriculture. This time, he knew what he did wrong. He hadn't put in enough chakra and so he'd fallen off. He wouldn't be making that mistake again. Summoning all of his chakra and channeling it to his foot, Naruto lifted and planted it against the tree.

The effect was immediate. He was blasted from the tree, leaving a small indentation in the bark as he hurtled several feet away to land for the second time in so many minutes on his back.

"Consequences, Naruto." Kakashi said from the top of the tree, his eye not leaving the book. "The first time you didn't put enough chakra into it, now you've put in too much. You're going to have to find the proper balance to succeed. This is the great art of chakra, knowing just how much or how little to put into your technique. Force, reactions, consequences."

Kakashi reached into his pouch and pulled out a kunai, tossing it to the base of the tree with a lazy flick of the wrist.

"Use that to mark your progress like you see on the other trees."

A grumbling Naruto rose to his feet, glaring daggers at the one eyed ninja resting comfortably on top of the tree and safely out of harm's reach. He still hadn't gotten even for the soaking that morning. He hadn't forgotten nor forgiven. Walking over to the tree, he retrieved the kunai, the heavy metal fitting into his hand comfortably.

"You never said how long we're going to be at this." Naruto said, thinking back to Guy's instruction.

"Hmm?" Kakashi asked, looking down distractedly. "We're going 'til you either can't stand anymore or your next instructor gets impatient and sends a messenger to get you." He shrugged. "I have all day."

Naruto struggled to keep a straight face. He wasn't much for formal rules and the like, but this seemed a bit lax even to him. However, the one eyed ninja appeared unconcerned with his laziness. Looking up at the tree with trepidation, Naruto exhaled a pent-up breath.

This was going to hurt.

**Line Break**

In the end, it was the next instructor's patience that ran out first. Over the past two hours Naruto had been catching odd glances from Kakashi as he continued to try and climb the tree with single-minded determination. Now an ANBU stood on the tree beside Kakashi, black robes and white mask with animalistic markings distinguishing him as a fairly high-ranking member. A long sword was strapped to his back, the bindings were made to disconnect easily so it couldn't be grabbed onto and used against him.

"You were supposed to send him once he couldn't continue." The man said, his voice distorted by the porcelain mask.

Kakashi blinked up at the man calmly, unfazed by the stiff and well armed man standing in front of him.

"He's still going at it, see?" Kakashi responded, pointing down at where Naruto stood, squinting up at them, able to hear their discussion thanks to enhancing his ears with chakra.

"I just see a brat eavesdropping where he shouldn't." The ANBU responded coldly.

Naruto wasn't ashamed at being called out in the slightest. If the ANBU really had an issue with him listening in, he'd come down here and make something of it.

"Naruto has rather impressive stamina for his age. And, if I'm not mistaken, a very impressive healing rate. He came here favoring at least two bruised ribs and some torn muscles from his spar. Now he's hardly limping and not favoring his ribs at all."

The ANBU turned to regard Naruto, cold blue eyes boring into Naruto through the eye-slits in the mask.

"I don't envy him when you tell Ibiki about this. You know the man will want to test him to see how far it goes. The brat will not… enjoy it."

Naruto was alarmed to see Kakashi appear slightly uncomfortable with what the ANBU said.

"I hadn't planned on telling Lord Hokage's chief interrogator about it for at least another two weeks. I wanted to give the boy a chance. If Ibiki gets ahold of him this early… the kid will break before the month is out."

"Then I will win that part of the betting pool." The ANBU responded. "If you won't tell him, I will. Anyway," the ANBU disappeared and Naruto felt a hand land on his shoulder and the ANBU's voice boomed from above him, "I'll be taking the boy to his next appointment."

Naruto felt the tug of the high-speed transport and experience the blurred vision and accompanying weightlessness before his feet slammed back into the ground.

He was now standing in the middle of what appeared to be a ninja's library, lit by a fireplace recessed into the right wall. What looked like bookshelves lined each wall, except instead of books or scrolls there were small plaques with seals under them. Each plaque bore an inscription above the seal that declared what subject was contained in the seal below.

He wasn't alone in the room. What appeared to be a mummy sat in a wooden chair, white robes arranged around him carefully. His right was bound in a sling the wrapped over his shoulder, his uninjured left arm his arm was resting on his cane that stood slightly to his right. After Kakashi's lazy gaze, Naruto found the intent and direct gaze from the man almost alarming. The x-shaped scar on his chin lent the gaze a more serious, chilling quality that bespoke a hardness only gained from combat.

Naruto knew that sort of gaze. He'd seen the same look in the eyes of the gang leaders and their direct subordinates. It was the look of someone who gave orders and expected them to be obeyed, perfectly prepared and willing to mete out punishment if they weren't.

Instincts gained and honed in the slums came back to him. He straightened his back, taking extra care not to lock eyes with the man. If the mummy was anything like the men he grew up under, then crossing this man was the last thing he wanted to do.

"My name is Danzo." The mummy said, introducing himself in a low, controlled, voice that cause the hair on Naruto's neck to stand on end. He knew Danzo. Anybody who'd lived on the streets for any respectable period of time didn't know about the Hokage's ex-black ops man, Danzo. The man was as cold as they came, with a heart that made ice envious. He created soldiers without emotion or free will. Supposedly he was forced into retirement years ago.

"You've met two of your instructors in Taijutsu and Ninjutsu." Danzo continued. "They are prone to change depending on the needs of the other students. Chief Interrogator Ibiki and myself will be handling your training for tactics, interrogation and general studies. Others will handle your body; we will handle something far more useful, far more potent and dangerous than the physical. We will be honing your mind."

Danzo clicked his cane on the stone ground.

"How are you in mathematics?"  
Naruto cringed and Danzo frowned.

"Liberal arts?"

"Is that a Taijutsu form?"  
Danzo's frown deepened.

"Philosophy?"

"How much did the sofa cost?" Naruto asked, trying weakly to make a joke.

Danzo stared at him for a long moment, his frown so firmly affixed in place Naruto wondered if the muscles had cramped.

"I see your previous instructors did not exaggerate when they said just how much of a blank slate you are."

Danzo held out a hand and a thick book with far too many pages than Naruto was comfortable with appeared in a puff of smoke. Danzo held it out to Naruto expectantly. "We'll start with general education and move from there. You will not be leaving until well after dinner."

Naruto repressed a groan. The man hadn't taken well to his joke; it followed reason to assume he wouldn't take to complaining. With sluggish movements, Naruto accepted the book from Danzo wordlessly and sat himself against one of the bookshelves, drawing his knees up towards his chest and resting the book against them. Opening the book, he found himself faced with a never-ending scrawl of words without a picture to be found. It was a veritable monsoon of verbiage and Naruto had never been fond of reading. There was rarely a need for it in the environment he grew up in. You had to know how to work your numbers, be able to respond to basic orders, and not get into the way of the bigger kids and the taskmasters.

"The whole book?" Naruto asked, looking up.

Danzo simply looked at him without deigning the question with a response. Getting the hint, Naruto returned to the book on his lap flipped a few pages and picked a random spot and began to read.

_Once the clan wars came to a close and the villages began their hasty formation, it is unsurprising how nature itself seemed to reflect the aspects found in the shinobi's abilities. In Konoha the element of fire is most prevalent even though they hold the most balance among the village that sprang up during the same time. The Sarutobi with their ash attacks quickly rose amongst the nobility to mark their name with the Hyuuga and Uchiha who helped found the village._

Naruto closed his eyes. History. The most useless of the classes he'd been forced to trudge through in the academy. What was the point in knowing what some dead person did so many years ago? How did that help put food on the table or make you stronger? He couldn't see the use in it - unless he could somehow convince his opponent to sit still and allow him to bore him to death with his vast wealth of inane facts.

He sat like that for three hours, trudging through page after page of history and theory, the author exhaustively pointing out that if Konoha might not have been able to gain the upper hand during the war if the Fourth Hokage hadn't been as powerful as he had and Konoha's strategists hadn't been as clever in troop deployment as they had been. It was a sobering read and Naruto was surprised at how frank it was. The texts he'd been forced to read back at the academy had made it seem as though victory was almost assured throughout the war, that the Fourth Hokage had been the lynchpin in the machine.

"Why do you fight for Konoha?" Danzo suddenly asked, breaking the silence.

Naruto blinked in bewilderment over the top of his book, looking at the solemn war veteran.

"What do you mean?" He eventually asked. Was this some sort of trick to twist his words from the other day and implicate himself as a traitor? He wasn't, and he was growing tired of trying to prove himself loyal.

"Because Konoha is my home."

Danzo continued to look at him levelly, hardly even blinking. A response that made Naruto's own eyes want to water in sympathy. He clearly didn't believe Naruto's answer.

"Home." Danzo repeated the word slowly, as if turning it over and examining it in his mind. "And what is home?"

"Why are you asking me?" Naruto asked, a bit of his annoyance with both the reading and the questioning creeping into his voice.

"I am asking you because you need to starting thinking, boy." Danzo said aggressively in his controlled and raspy tone. "You need to start looking at the bigger picture of things. Now, what is home?"

"Home is where you sleep at night." Naruto said, then hesitated and repeated what he'd seen a man on the streets say to his child while he crouched in the gutter. "Home is where you're accepted and loved." He said slightly despondently.

"So that is "Home", then?" Danzo asked.

Naruto nodded, though he had a distinct feeling that the conversation wasn't going his way at all.

"Why would you fight for a place that never wanted you?" Danzo asked, each word striking Naruto like a thunderbolt.

"Lord Danzo." An ANBU said in a threatening tone, appearing in a burst of motion and leaves next to the aged mummy's shoulder. "You are coming dangerously clo-"

"I am aware of what I am doing." Danzo said, cutting off the ANBU. "My agreement with Sarutobi to teach these children allows me certain privileges. I know exactly what I may and may not say. Leave us."

The ANBU hesitated briefly, looking as if he wanted to argue but had thought better of it. He nodded and formed a hand seal, vanished just as he'd come.

Naruto hadn't really registered their exchange, his mind running through his life once more. The mean looks, the blows, all the actions the citizenry of Konoha took against him for whatever reason they all seemed to accept and know. A reason that was completely unfathomable to him. A reason Ibiki, and now this man, had hinted at.

"Tell me." Danzo pressed, looking at Naruto again. "Why do you want to fight for a village that hates you as much as they do?"

Naruto wanted him to stop. He didn't like thinking about it. Everything would get better when he became strong enough to be a ninja. They wouldn't hate him for who he was. Had his parents done something bad? Were they traitors? Is that why everyone assume he would be as well? It certainly would explain a lot. That had to be it. At least if it was them, it would absolve him of responsibility.

"I'm a patriot." Naruto moaned, curling up and gripping his head, the book that had been on his lap clattering to the floor. The strain of the last two days had been getting too him. He was only thirteen and so much had been happening. He wasn't a traitor. He wasn't his parents.

"A patriot?" Danzo parroted, derision filling his voice." Why wouldn't the man stop? What had Naruto done to him? "A patriot is someone who dies for the ideal of a plot of dirt and an idea. Stand straight, boy. Look me in the eye and tell me what you fight for, if not for your country and future generations as the other ninja do?"

Naruto unclenched his muscles so that he lay flat against the floor and stared blankly at the cruel instructor. Anger boiled and suffused every cell of Naruto's body so that he felt as though he were on fire. He wanted to scream, to yell, to make someone understand that he just wanted a normal life. Of course he didn't care for patriotism. Future generations? A possibility? Naruto failed to see the point in either of those things. They were an intangible ideal and didn't fill the belly at night, nor did they keep you warm during the winter.

"I fight so that when the chips are down -when the blood hits the fan and everything falls apart, I'll be the one standing. Everyone and everything I hold dear will be protected. The Ichiraku's, Iruka, and old man Hokage will be safe. And if they value other people, I'll save them too. No one deserves to live alone."

Danzo leaned back in his chair. His eyes however, never left Naruto own. He gazed at Naruto for a stretch before asking, "What can one boy do?"

Naruto shrugged. "Whatever I can."  
Danzo smiled a twisted, lopsided smile, his gnarled lips seemingly unused to the motion and said, "You can start by becoming the becoming stronger than the others." He pointed at the book still lying beside Naruto. "And learning everything you can. Power lies in knowledge and secrets. If you know what the opponent is going to do before they do, you'll have the upper hand."

Naruto looked at the book. The man's logic made sense, but…books. They were what rich people quoted and read from to fancy up their words and honey talk people like him into doing what they wanted.

_If you can't beat them, join them._ Naruto thought, sitting up and reaching for the book.

**Line Break**

It was a physically and mentally exhausted Naruto that slid into one of the many long tables that had been set up in the main cavern where he'd sparred earlier that day. Sasuke and Sakura were already mostly finished with their meals, a sizable serving of steak and potatoes with broccoli and corn. Naruto dropped his tray of food on the table with a loud clatter, getting an annoyed look from Sakura and a sideways glance from Sasuke.

_Bastard's probably deaf._ Naruto thought scathingly.

His mood had not improved, even after resolving to endure reading. Although his attitude had shifted slightly, the words were still as difficult to decipher as they'd previously been.

Naruto pulled out his utensils and dug into his meal. The ration bar was as disgusting as it was filling, but nothing could compare to a full-blown meal. It was no ramen, but with how hungry he was it didn't matter.

They continued to eat in silence, which rather surprised him. Not once had Sakura directly spoken to Sasuke. In fact, now that he looked at her, she looked like she'd been on the wrong side of a stampede. Her hair was a mess of knots and snares, thin cuts were scattered across her arms like she'd recently ran through a thick nest of brambles, or challenged a stack of needles to a duel and lost.

"What happened to you?" Naruto inquired, sticking a mouthful of mashed potatoes into his mouth.

Sakura gave him a disgusted look before answering, "She lied."

Naruto gave her a blank look at the cryptic response.

"I don't follow."

"The interviewer… snake woman. She lied. She said I wouldn't ever see her again. She lied."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the hostile way she answered, not that he could blame her. His own experience with the instructors thus far had been a carried from painful, to annoying, to painfully educational. But Sakura, her eyes were unfocused as she stared at her half-finished plate of food. Normally, she would have been horrified at her unkempt appearance in front of Sasuke, preferring not to be seen at all rather than be seen dirtied. Her day must have been just as unforgiving as his own.

Naruto leaned over to Sasuke, "Has she been like this the entire time?" he asked.

Sasuke only grunted as he diligently worked on cutting his steak, pale hands expertly manipulating the knife and fork with all the dignified grace of a well trained noble. It made Naruto want to upturn the plate on the pretty boy's face.

Retraining himself and running Sasuke's grunt through a quick mental translator, Naruto nodded in the affirmative, understand that Sasuke meant 'yes'. It was a talent Naruto was not proud of, though, on occasions like now, it had its uses.

"Why were you late to dinner?" Sasuke asked between bites, somehow using only the tone of his voice to make Naruto feel like he'd been the one in the wrong and should apologize.

_Its his damned rich upbringing._ Naruto thought. _If he'd been born where I had, there's no way he would speak like that. Or maybe he would. He'd fit right in with Korin and his crew of pompous assholes._

"Danzo." Naruto growled by way of explanation.

"I haven't met this Danzo." Sasuke replied dismissively. "I've only been trained by Jōnin Kakashi, Chief Interrogator Ibiki, Jōnin Sarutobi Asuma, Jōnin Kurenai, and special Jōnin Ebisu."

Naruto goggled. Five trainers? He'd only had three. Was Sasuke really that much better than he was?

"Hmph, bet they traded you off so fast because they couldn't stand your stuck up attitude." Naruto jeered.

Sasuke ignored him, opting place the last cut of steak into his mouth, chew, and then wipe his mouth with his napkin and stand to his feet.

"Jōnin Kakashi ordered me to tell you that after dinner we have on hour's free time before we are expected to be in our rooms."

Then, without so much as a posh 'good evening', Sasuke turned and headed towards their room, disappearing from sight.

"What an ass." Naruto commented, looking after where the raven-haired ninja had retreated.

"Don't talk about Sasuke like that." Sakura said, though her heart wasn't quite in the rebuke as it usually was.

"Mr'll trph abrf 'strd hrhfer," Naruto swallowed his mouthful of food, "I want." He finished.

Sakura tossed him another disgusted look before standing and walking off with a muttered 'pig' under her breath.

Naruto smiled to himself as she left. He knew that would get rid of her. His uncultured upbringing did have some uses. Now he could finish his meal in peace with the table all to himself.

"That was not wise, Uzumaki." Came Ibiki's gruff tones from behind him.

Naruto didn't turn his attention away from his meal as the large man dropped into the seat beside him, black trench coat splaying around him like a tainted pool.

"Mr nrf care." Naruto said through his food, looking with a sidelong glance at the man, hoping he would become frustrated like Sakura had and leave him alone to eat in peace. He'd had enough of teachers for one day.

"That won't work on me, Uzumaki." Ibiki said, shattering Naruto's hopes with a cold indifference.

Naruto swallowed, staring glumly at the interrogator.

"Why would you care?" Naruto asked.

Ibiki looked at him for long time, holding Naruto's gaze with a flat, uncompromisable strength.

"I care because you eleven, as sad as it is at present, are Konoha's future." He said at last.

Naruto had nothing to say to that. He couldn't quite comprehend that Konoha would depend on him for anything. Sure, the Hokage said that they were looking to train the next Sannin, and the training he'd received today had been like nothing he'd received before, but why would they care about his relationships with suck-up snobs boys like Sasuke and Sakura.

"I'll give you a bit of advice, and a story I remember my father telling me when I was a lad." Ibiki continued. "First the advice: Wasting energy acting like a and driving who would have, if the Hokage hadn't decided to start this little venture of his, been your teammates."

_My teammates? Them?_

"What are you walking about?" Naruto demanded. "He's the stuck up rich kid. He-"

Ibiki glowered at him and Naruto fell silent.

"What is snobbery other than feeling entitled to respect simply because you grew up poor, instead of rich, turned on its' head?"

"I'm not stuck up." Naruto shot back.

"Refusing to associate with someone because they're a bit different than you? That sounds pretty stuck up to me." Ibiki commented. "But that's my advice. Take it or leave it, it's up to you."

Naruto sat under Ibiki's stern scowl turning over the uncomfortable possibility that he was a lot more like the bastard than he wanted to admit. The thought wasn't a pleasant one.

"The story?" Naruto asked, wanting to distract himself from his own introspection.

Ibiki grunted, shifting on the seat to make him more comfortable. Naruto did the same.

"Years ago a gambler and a monk embarked on a long trek right through the great lands of the North." Ibiki began. "They had a debate about God, chance and fate, and agreed that they'd settle it through just one card game." Ibiki held up a single calloused finger. "Days passed into weeks which turned into months and travelers came in just to watch them play, and bet on which one would eventually win. As a town was built around them the gambler's pot rose and the Monk's pot fell." Ibiki smiled a lopsided smile, scar at his lip twisting with the motion. "At last the final hand came, but before it was played the Gambler's heart gave out. He hollered and cried out before he died, cursing from his lungs: the game was not done. He swore they'd be back to finish. And with his first to the sky the gambler died."

Ibiki nodded to himself once and reached into the inside of his coat, withdrawing a flask and raised it to his lips, taking a long swig before returning it to where he'd withdrawn it from.

"That's it?" Naruto asked.

"The end." Ibiki confirmed, nodding again.

"The story wasn't finished." Naruto protested, frowning.

"Neither was their card game." Ibiki responded glibly, standing up and looking down at Naruto who he towered over. Naruto blinked, the man seemed to block out the light from above.

"Think about it, Uzumaki." Ibiki said and then left, leaving Naruto alone with his thoughts.

**Line Break**

It was several hours after his encounter with Ibiki and Naruto was now lying on his bed, hands laced behind his bed, eyes glazed as he stared into the dark room. It was lights out and the power had been cut. They were expected to remain in the room, resting for the next day like cattle. Naruto might have been slightly offended at the lack of freedom – even though he'd been told this was going to happen – if his mind wasn't so full of what Ibiki and Danzo had said to him. They were connected, of that he was sure. He just had no blasted idea how.

Danzo's words had shaken him greatly, though he had put up a strong front before the Uchiha and Sakura. Perhaps he'd been too abrupt with them, as Ibiki had said, but you couldn't afford to show weakness in front of people you didn't trust. That got you killed on the streets. You did what you had to on the streets to survive. Stabbing someone in the back to get what he or she had? Commonplace. And so he'd pushed them even further away. But maybe there was another way. A small part of Naruto, a part he thought he'd buried a long time ago, screamed at him to extend the hand of friendship and do his best to get along with them. After all, they would have been his teammates had fate not decided otherwise. Maybe it was worth a try.

Naruto turned over on his cot to face where the other two would be laying. The soft, rhythmic sounds of their breathing told him that they were already asleep. Waking them would hardly put them in the best of temperaments and so he decided that he'd try tomorrow evening during dinner to mend a few of the hundreds of bridges he'd burned over the years he'd known them.

A home. Naruto hadn't really thought about that concept for quite some time, not since he'd given up on the possibility of him ever having one years ago. But Danzo had hinted that he could find one amongst the other students and teachers here.

_ No_. Naruto thought as he frowned. Danzo hadn't actually said anything like that. He'd said that he'd have to become stronger than them to achieve power. Secrets. That's what the mummified instructor had told him, secrets had power. Did that mean he had to hide his power from the others? But then, what power did he have that others didn't?

Naruto grit his teeth in frustration. He'd had enough of secrets. His entire life was one big one. At first he'd grabbed onto the possibility of his parents being traitors, certainly it would explain the mistrust they had for him. It didn't, however, explain their continued hatred of him. If his parents were traitors then it didn't explain why people weren't allowed to talk about it. Konoha wasn't a pit full of fools who meted out judgment on a whim; neither did they casually transfer hatred from one generation to the next without declaring why. He'd seen other kids rise from the gutters, why would he be the exception?

A thought suddenly occurred to him, a thought that shattered his traitorous parent theory. If they were turncoats, then mistreating the son was certainly a recipe for disaster. That meant that whatever they hated him for was on account of something that he had control over. Whatever had enraged them so much was even larger than he'd imagined.

"And what could I have done when I was so young I can't even remember it?" Naruto asked of the darkness.

He shook his head. He didn't have enough information at present. The older generation obviously knew something that the younger generation hadn't been clued in on. They simply parroted their parents. Ibiki had all but told him that. So he just had to go far enough into the past to draw the lines.

Naruto had to repress a chuckle as he realized the irony of that thought. The past, history, his least favorite subject was suddenly relevant, just as Danzo had said it would be. Maybe there was a point in studying the past.

He closed his eyes, trying to settle his mind. He'd come into a resolution. He was going to become stronger, and in doing so he was going to surpass every one of his peers and prove himself. And he was going to do that with their friendship. A lot of them were of noble clans that he saw - they had to know a few secrets he could weasel out of them. Who knew? He might even enjoy their company.

**End of Chapter Two**

**A/N: I don't intend to illustrate their training et nausium- one maybe two more chapters maximum before I skip a bit of time and get to the meat of the matter. I still need to finish some introductions and the like, settle the characters. Speaking of, what do you think of the three's characters thus far? I know they're a bit unrefined, but they'll get better. They're children, after all.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Boogaloo. By the way, no pairings decided, though I've got a few ideas. I'd welcome any input. Within the next five chapters there will be a time skip. Admittedly, I can't say I enjoy writing about young teenagers preforming ridiculous feats of combat. I prefer them at least 16 or higher, so their reach is longer and muscles more developed. I'm thinking 6 months, but a year would be better. Three years, what I'd prefer, is straight out. Too large a time to just leap over, too many character changes possible. I'd lose you guys in what I intend their characters to be like in the end. I might,**_** might**_** make a two-year jump, but that's a bit of a stretch. Speaking of which, I feel I made a few leaps development wise this chapter, drop a review if you feel so and I'll see if I can edit it. Recommendations are greatly appreciated.**

** This is the chapter where characters really begin changing. So, cut me a bit of slack. I know I'm rushing it but would you rather this drag on for the whole three years?**

**Chapter Three**

**To Protect and the Value of Lies**

_Let it be known that power is a burden. Seek not to be bound by its chains._

**Line Break**

Naruto panted heavily, sweat pouring down his brow and splashing into his orange jumpsuit. He was leaning with hands on knees, glaring at the disappointed looking Might Guy standing a few feet away from him, his arms folded in front of him, still clad in green spandex like the day before. Today had started out similarly to day one, only without the near drowning. A fact for which he was grateful.

"Yosh, start from the beginning." Guy commanded in his ever-exuberant voice.

Naruto followed the order, straightening up and starting the kata again, his tired limbs going through the motions, which by now were fueled with more determination than strength. Four hours. Four miserable hours he'd been going through various martial arts stances under the keen eyes and bushy brows of Might Guy. Jujitsu, Rock Fist, Muay Thai, Karate, Kung Fu, and names of forms Naruto couldn't even remember, they drilled them all. And Naruto had to face the reality that he wasn't nearly as good as he should be.

He could partially blame his lack of skill on the poor instruction he'd received at the academy. However, after four hours under Guy's guidance, Naruto had to admit that he'd never put much effort into hand-to-hand combat.

_Just like now._ Naruto rebuked himself, focusing on the kata's movement.

"That will due for now. A very youthful display!" Guy said, stepping up to stand beside Naruto, handing him a water bottle.

Naruto took it, gulping it down greedily.

"I didn't do good enough. I could see it on your face." Naruto bit out in between swallows.

"Nonsense!" Guy said in denial, waving a dismissive hand as he laughed heartily. "Your form is crude but youthful. Fan your flames of youth and you'll sprout into a glorious ninja!"

Naruto eyed the spandex clad ninja. He still wasn't sure what to think of the man. His instructor shouted far too often for Naruto's taste, and he still hadn't figured out what Guy's obsession with youth was. Certainly, it wasn't harmful, but it certainly stuck out.

"Though I would recommend a change of clothes." Guy continued, oblivious to Naruto's scrutiny. "Even with how youthful your own display is, I'm afraid it isn't very practical for youthful clashes."

Naruto raised his eyebrows in surprise. Was he hearing the spandex wearing, youth spouting instructor correctly?

"There's nothing wrong with what I'm wearing." Naruto said petulantly. He was rather proud of his jumpsuit. It was made of the best color possible.

"If you must wear the youthful color, then make it tighter to your body." Guy suggested, settling into an open stance, legs apart and hands raised, one in front of the other with the fist closest to Naruto open, palm to the ceiling. "I'll show you why."

Naruto followed suit, mimicking the Open Fist's opening stance his instructor preferred.

"Yosh!" Guy exclaimed signaling the start of the bout.

Naruto moved forward, flaring his chakra in his chest so it burned comfortably, enhancing his movements to give him increased speed and strength. Once Guy came into range, he struck forward with a powerful fist, using his hip to increase the power of the blow as he'd been taught. With a grace Naruto wouldn't have believed possible from the man had he not seen and experienced it first hand, Guy danced around the attack as though it were child's play, simultaneously launching a back-handed counter attack.

Naruto reflexively blocked it, curling up and locking his joints to brunt the blow as best he could. Might Guy didn't look it, but the man's lightest blow could topple Naruto as a toddler would knock over a stack of blocks just to see it fall. Before Naruto could counter himself, Guy opened his hand, rotating it and grabbing ahold of the loose jumper fabric, wrenching Naruto off his feet and tossing him across the training area as though he weighed no more than a feather.

Naruto hit the ground, rolling with the motion and leaping to his feet. Hastily erecting a defense to block a blow he knew was coming. He wasn't disappointed. Guy was already bearing down on top of him, spinning kick already in motion. Left with only one option, Naruto stepped into the attack, pushing his own center of gravity into Guy's as he'd been instructed, attempting to overwhelm his instructor with the unexpected move and undermine his defense.

"Yosh!" Guy exclaimed, surprising Naruto as the man seemed to wrap around him with his legs, ensnaring his clothing once more and flinging him with a back handspring.

Naruto swore as he flew, desperately trying to regain his orientation as he flipped through the air. He hit the ground, his arm cracking under the impact, forcing a cry from Naruto's lips from the pain.

"My most youthful apologies!" Guy cried, hurrying over to where Naruto was curled up on the ground and clutching his limb.

Naruto growled as he clutched at his right wrist, pain pulsing from the join in hot waves. It wasn't broken. He knew that from his many experiences with damaged bones. It was most likely fractured, a diagnosis made more certain by the swelling already occurring.

Guy crouched down to his right, peering at the injured limb, but retained his good senses and didn't try to wrest the limb from him. Naruto did not like other people near him while he was injured. It was weakness, and even if he had resolved to be more trusting, this was one thing he was not going to budge on.

"Will you remain youthful?" Guy asked with concern. That seemed to be the man's way of asking if he was all right.

"It's just a fracture. I'll heal." Naruto grit out through clenched teeth.

Guy hummed, "You'll be out of it for a few days, my friend," He said consolingly, "as long as the medics get a good look at you. I'll have an ANBU take you to the infirmary."

Naruto snorted in amusement, despite the pressing pain he was in. "I'll be fine in a couple of hours." He said. "I've always been good at healing, never gotten sick in my life. Pretty useful for someone who grew up on the streets, ne?"

Guy blinked in surprise, large eyes staring intently at the limb whose swelling had already disappeared.

"I'd heard one of the ANBU telling my youthful friend Ibiki about it the other day, but I didn't think much of it. A couple of hours?"

Naruto nodded, carefully prodding the angry bone to make sure nothing had splintered off. That'd happened once after a particularly bad beating at Korin's hands when he hadn't managed to pickpocket enough coin that day. The beating had broken his arm in such a way that a chink of bone had separated from the main body. His arm had healed just fine in the couple of days, but it hadn't healed correctly, leaving the sliver lodged in his muscle. He'd been forced to cut open his arm and dig it out. With his skin constantly trying to close around the crude blade he'd been using, it had made the process particularly unpleasant. Whatever fueled his healing only what was necessary to make him operate and didn't distinguish old from new. It was a wonderful ability, however it had its fair share of drawbacks.

"Yosh, if you are fine, then do you understand what I was trying to tell you?" Guy asked, a question Naruto nodded to.

His jumpsuit, the future of style, was too bulky for close quarter fighting. It was easy to catch on to and use against him in the middle of battle. The way Guy had used his own clothing against him twice had been skillful, presenting very little opportunity for countering. As loathed as he was to admit it, he needed to change his wardrobe a bit for when he was expecting combat. The color stayed, that wasn't going to change, but he couldn't allow the jumpsuit to be a liability in battle.

"Then I am sorry." Guy said heavily, placing a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "But your life is going to become much less youthful for a time."

Naruto cocked in head in question at the Jōnin.

"I'm sorry." Guy repeated, the man's large eyes reflecting misgivings about something.

Naruto felt the gut wrenching sensation that signaled he was being moved from one training ground to another. Did they expect him to practice tree climbing even while injured? He reoriented himself quickly, by now an old hand at being yanked from place to place. The problem was that he was not in the tree filled, waterfall area.

Instead he was in a small wooden chamber, a single, high-backed chair in the center. The chair was ordinary in all respects except for the large metal shackles around the arms and legs, a leather strap hung down from the headrest.

"Welcome to Sheol, Uzumaki." A familiar gruff voice said from behind him.

Naruto turned to face Ibiki. The large man stood by the open door he must have just come through, his large body barely making leaving room on either side of the frame, his trench coat brushing the metal as he passed.

"We talked last night. Seems a bit odd to be welcoming me now." Naruto responded, skipping the pleasantries. He was never much for small talk.

"I was in a hurry and didn't get a chance to welcome you properly, Uzumaki." Ibiki answered, stepping forward to and past Naruto, coming to a stop by the chair, laying a large hand on the wood. Beside the bear-like man, the chair appeared tiny.

"You told me a story." Naruto said in amusement, the pain of his wrist forgotten for the moment.

"And then I left immediately after. I was pressed for time but you needed to be straightened out. You were going to destroy your chances here within the first blasted day."

Naruto regarded the man for a moment. How much did the man know? Probably everything. But still, Naruto was not fond of talking about his feelings.

"What am I doing here?" Naruto asked, his eyes darting to the chair before returning to Ibiki.

"We are going to push you to your limits, Uzumaki."

Naruto was immediately on alert, his mind finally putting the pieces together. Everyone's talk about his healing, Guy's apology, and worst of all, the chair sitting in the middle of the room, its frame suddenly seeming much larger and more imposing.

He stepped back instinctually. His eyes widened as his back pressed up against a wall were a door should have been. The disappearing and appearing doors were quickly getting on his nerves.

"You can't be serious." He said.

"Remember what I told you about prices and demands?" Ibiki asked.

"Yes," Naruto barked, pressing himself even harder against the wall, "but you didn't mention that I was going to be tortured."

The large man hesitated for a moment, deep brown eyes holding Naruto's with a dispassionate, analytical gaze that bore into Naruto's very soul. The stare was similar to the one he'd given Naruto just a few days ago when they sat almost exactly like this one.

"Isn't Torture below Konoha? Aren't we better than that?"

"You won't beat the Uchiha or the Hyuuga. Anyone with bloodlines will crush you as you stand at the moment." Ibiki said. "You are too soft. Konoha above torturing? We hold morals, however compromises and exceptions are always made for the greater good and the security of our home."

"I don't see how this will help." Naruto said, his voice sounding a bit high pitched to his ears.

"You have an ability to heal." Ibiki stated bluntly. "Do you consider this a normal ability, boy?"

Naruto hesitated for a few heartbeats, the question unbalancing him.

"Is it connected to why people hate me?" Naruto asked.

Ibiki smiled, his grin showing a full head of white teeth that seemed to sparkle in the dimly lit room. "That's the question, isn't it, boy?"

"Does it change anything?" Naruto asked.

Ibiki shrugged. "Everything. Nothing. Can't say until we test it. Will your healing ability get better with practice? Can you control the rate at which you can heal? Are there any side effects? There are many variables. Knowing your own secrets can mean holding an advantage over an opponent."

Secrets - that magical word. Naruto stepped forward, slowly approaching the chair as though it were a viper. He had made a promise the other day, to himself. A secret if you will. He was going to protect. He was going to protect everyone because that's what the Hokage did. A leader looked after his own.

"Let's get this over with." He muttered begrudgingly, seating himself on the chair with trepidation. He had experienced pain on the streets. He'd just grit his death and bear with it.

Ibiki withdrew a kunai from the folds of his coat with his left hand, Naruto's eyes latching onto the cold steel with the fervent intensity of a priest.

"Will I need to bind you, boy?" Ibiki asked, testing the sharpness of the blade with his right index finger.

"I'll try not to move." Naruto said, his voice most certainly higher than before. Two days ago he'd been afraid of the prospect of injuring himself with the blade the masked ANBU had left for him during his first test. Now he sat here, willingly about to be stabbed, slashed, and attacked without striking back. Sheol changed a person.

"See that you don't." Ibiki said. "If you move and hurt yourself further, you might not recover properly and be dropped from the program. I won't lie to you, boy. This is going to hurt. Bravado has no place here."

Naruto gulped, eyeing the dagger. "Tie me up." He said.

Ibiki did so quickly. He expertly manipulating the leather straps to wrap around his shoulders, gagging his mouth so he didn't accidently bite his own tongue off and drown in the blood. The metal clasps fit around his wrists perfectly, as if made specifically for him.

"Are you ready?" Ibiki asked steadily.

Naruto did his best to nod, the motion made difficult by the restraints.

The pain was immediate and consuming. He tried to scream through the gag, his eyes rolling in his head as felt the knife inserted into his shoulder, driving through the muscle and into the bone, jolting off the bone. The metallic scent of blood filled his nostrils and Ibiki twisted the weapon, withdrawing it and burying it again, in his right leg this time. The smell of blood intensified. He had experienced pain. But not like this. Never like this.

Naruto felt his leg twitch, desperate to escape the penetrating tool. What had possessed him to agree to this? He had been arrogant beyond belief to assume he could endure this. He wanted to go back, to escape and curl up somewhere no one would find him.

Three pricks in quick succession, two in the left leg, and one in the gut. His vision blurred but everything became clear. He was being murdered. Ibiki was no different from the others. He hated Naruto and had led him along with small tidbits of information, getting him to trust him, even if slightly.

An inexplicable primal anger that was not his own rose up inside him -it was animalistic in its intensity and inhuman in potency. Anger so powerful that Naruto's world was devoured by it, squeezing and blacking it out completely.

**Line Break**

Sakura sat on her cot alone. She hadn't bothered to turn the lights on full, preferring to keep them dim. Her body still trembled from her experience with Anko. The woman, if she could be called that, baffled her, terrified her. The snake mistress, a moniker the purpled haired woman reveled in embodying with her serpentine summons, flitted from emotion to emotion with all the steadiness of a leaf on the wind. One moment she would be praising Sakura's chakra control, the next belittling her for her poor stamina.

Sakura's hand twitched towards the pen and paper that rested on the cot beside her. She'd written a list of apparently random supplies on the request form. She knew how to assemble them into something workable. Indeed, her parents, gods rest his their souls, had seen to it that his little girl knew how to properly construct a still.

She hated them.

Her family was part of the reason she joined the academy. She had escaped them, and their wasteful, idiotic, penniless ways. They couldn't keep a cent between them, always gambling, drinking, or partying with their drug bodies before returning home and collapsing on the floor like soaked rags, too drunk to carry themselves to their dirt-stained beds.

She had been happy at the academy. It was a relief. She could act just like everyone else. Moon over boys, talk about make-up, titter over a dress. She could be just like everyone else. No more cleaning up after her parent's messes, no more worrying about if they were going to make ends meet. She'd run.

For a moment, Sakura felt a pang of worry for her parents. She'd been the one to make sure they got to work on time. Where they even still alive? She'd taken a room at the academy's bunk when she couldn't deal with her reality anymore.

Taking a breath, she lifted the slip of paper and stood, making her way over to the request box and placed the paper into the slot. She closed her eyes and breathed out a held lungful of air she hadn't known she'd held. It was done. She was just like her parents after all. But maybe she could manage it better than they had. Maybe she'd find balance.

Sakura sighed. Why was breathing so difficult all the sudden? Poison? No, it couldn't be. Anko had claimed to remove all the toxins after their training. Was it her conscious? Had guilt consumed her? It was possible. She had to get stronger. That was what she was here for. Guilt had no place for a ninja. The books she'd read had been quite clear about that. If she could just numb herself enough so that-

The door opened and two Jōnin dressed in green vests and black trousers entered, dragging a red… something, between them. They turned on the lights and carried it over to one of the furthest cot and tossed the mass onto the canvas. The thing was a mess of color, red, orange, black and blond. Sakura felt her eyes widen when she realized what it was.

Naruto had returned home.

"Take care of him." One of the Jōnin, a short and stalky man with short hair, said in a high-pitched voice as he brushed past Sakura's paralyzed form, heading for the door. "The medics on staff were called out on an emergency, we have to go as well. Bloody bad timing if you ask me. Good luck."

They left, the taller of the two dropping a medic bag by her leg as they departed. Something about that excuse seemed off to her. They'd had plenty of resources at their disposal up until now, what had changed? She didn't have time to think about it. Naruto wasn't moving and there was so much blood staining his clothes.

Sakura grabbed the bag, rushing over to where Naruto lay prostrate, eye cloths and skin deathly pale, not even noticing that her trembling had stopped. She had to force down a gag as the smell of blood hit her like a hammer blow. There was so much of it. How did a body contain his much? She shook herself, snapping out of her stupor. She had to focus; Naruto's life may depend on her keeping a level head.

Snapping the bag open, she reached inside, fingers scrabbling among the collection of strange tools. Eventually, she found a roll of linen and a tube of disinfectant. She was familiar with basic first aid, her parents were not graceful drunks, but the array of injuries before her was beyond her skill. Slashes, cuts, stabs, at least one or two fingers were broken. At least someone had already set the bones into place. She had to splint them before they were knocked back out of alignment.

Sweat beaded on her forehead as she set to work. Carefully, Sakura picked the jumper apart with cautious fingers, being sure not to touch the wounds. The once bright orange cloth was now more a collection of red and orange strips that clung to blond's body out of sheer obstinacy rather than design. Once she'd pulled and cut the top half of the jumper away from Naruto's body using the scissors from the bag. There was large gash across Naruto's chest, an angry red already outlining the wound.

_Infected._ Sakura thought, a corner of her mind analyzing each wound as she dressed the larger wound on the chest, running a strip of linen dipped in the vial of cleaning alcohol around the edges of the injury. _Clean well and run a silk thread that'll dissolve as the wound heals._

Pulling out a run of thread from the bag, she quickly unwound a strand and hooked it through a needle and began to knit Naruto's flesh back together. How like a doll humans were. They could even be repaired in the same way.

She wasn't a doctor, but she had read books from the academy on first aid during her first few months at the academy. If she had washed out early then she would have needed to care for her parents better. The words she'd read on those pages were as clear in her mind as the day she'd read them. She'd always had a good memory when it came to remembering what she'd read. Photographic memory, it was called, useful to a librarian or some scholar, but not so much for a ninja.

Sakura had to repress a wince at the thought of her weakness. If she had winced, she might have only hurt Naruto further. The past two days had been a reality check for her. A few days ago, had someone asked her what being a ninja was like, she would have responded with a arrogant smirk and talked them half to death about how being a ninja was a noble path, full of glory and honor. She would have told them about how she was the top of her class, one of the best Konoha had to offer.

Now all she would have done is look them dead in the eye and say "Perdition."

Sheol. It was such a fitting name. She knew what the word meant, hell, and it was apt. The instructors didn't seem to care about their wellbeing. Who used poison on their students as though it were ordinary or safe?

She sighed as she put made the final tug on the stitch, cutting the thread and making a knot so it didn't come undone at the slightest of movements. Threading another needle, she was about to set onto one of the smaller gashes but froze. It wasn't there.

She blinked, trying to reconcile her memory of the state Naruto had been in when he'd been drug in, and the Naruto that lay in front of her. The one that was lying in front of her was most certainly healthier than he had been before. Reaching out, she took hold of Naruto's hand and lifted it, inspecting it once more. The fingers were no longer broken. Her eyes trailed Naruto's body, his skin no longer as pale as it had been, many of the cuts nothing more than a memory. There was the occasional line of red, not quite a scar but not an injury either, that marked where a wound had been.

Naruto, Sakura realized, wasn't nearly as large in body as his baggy jumpsuit suggested he was. He was dangerously thin, obviously malnourished, though he retained limbs dense with muscle. She could easily count his ribs from where she sat and figured that if she were across the room she could be able to count them just as easily.

"What a life you must have had." Sakura muttered, suddenly feeling ashamed.

She had mocked Naruto in the academy because of his status as an orphan, though she wasn't far off herself. She had felt a false sense of superiority because she, even what little she had, still had more than he did. He was even more wretched than she was and therefore she could deflect the self-loathing she'd felt for herself onto him. And somehow, he had withstood it. Taken it all in without protest, just a flat star and sometimes a smile.

_He's better than you are._ Sakura thought morosely. _He's obviously trying harder if he's pushed himself so far as this._

She was envious. How did he have the fortitude in the body and mind to push to this degree? She knew she couldn't have done it. She just wasn't cut out for this kind of stuff.

**Line Break**

Naruto was in pain, so much pain he couldn't move. Why was he in pain? He hadn't disobeyed Korin. Had been caught looking at Korin's painting? The canvas depiction of a blond haired warrior fighting a red creature so large it overshadowed the village. But no, that was years ago. So why had he been beaten? Naruto tried to remember but failed. The agony was like a solid wall, impenetrable and vast. On the edge of the pain he could make out fuzzy vibrations. Voices? Focusing in on them, he could just barely make out what they were saying, though recognition of those voices was beyond him. That required memory.

"He tapped the creature's power. It wasn't hard to suppress, the boy barely scratched the surface of what it's capable of but it made retaining him difficult." A gruff, short voice said.

"You went too far." An old voice said sharply. "You nearly killed him."

"No." A younger, if not by much, voice said, his voice urgent and pressed. "We need to press them harder. Did you learn anything?"

"His healing ability grows better the more it's used." Naruto knew that voice. It was… It was... somebody. "The healing slows as his chakra runs dry. It's as though it learns what must be done and improves, though I don't see it getting much stronger than it already is. The boy's had a hard life and already pushed the ability to his limit. I suspect it's the main reason he survived. He won't be able to regenerate from anything that would ordinarily kill instantly, such as a blow to the head."

"Push them all harder, then." The urgent voice said. "I may have to step in and help with their training. My spy network can manage itself for a while. Whoever killed Tsunade was strong enough to-."

Naruto couldn't keep his attention focused on them any longer. The pain was growing more insistent and it was all he could do to just to retain his awareness. He let himself float, not pushing at the wall of pain but not shrinking away from it either. For what felt like an eternity he just was.

The wall crumpled, crashing down and allow him to surface once more. Opening his eyes, he found himself lying on his back, artificial light cutting into his eyes. Looking around, he found that he wasn't in Ibiki's torture room. Naruto winced as a hazy memory of the _event_ returned to him. He almost preferred it when he couldn't remember.

"You're awake." a tired female voice said from beside him.

Naruto turned to find Sakura sitting on the cot beside him, head cupped in bloody hands. Her eyes were red from exhaustion and black bags hung under her eyes giving her grim countenance.

"I must have done something right for once, then." Sakura continued, lifting her head and stretching her neck.

Naruto tried to sit up but was quickly stopped by the pink haired girl.

"Don't," she said, "You'll pull the stitches and it took me long enough to get those in you. I'm not going to do it again."

Naruto blinked. Stitches? He looked down and, indeed, there were stitches, neatly dressed along a wound that stretched from right color bone to left hip and still hadn't healed. What had Ibiki done to him while he'd been out? He tried to sit up again to examine them but was forcibly stopped by Sakura, who'd stood and pushed him down by the shoulders.

"If you don't lay still, I'm going to knock you unconscious again." She said with agitation, holding up a clenched fist to illustrate her point.

Naruto obeyed reluctantly, resting his head against the pillow once more.

"What happened to you?" She asked, sitting back down. Though she was perched on the edge of the seat and ready to leap forward once more should he prove untrustworthy.

"Training." Naruto grunted, closing his eyes. He was tired, despite just waking up. Being tortured into unconsciousness didn't make for restful sleep and he didn't really feel like talking at the moment.

Sakura arched a delicate eyebrow at the non-answer.

"You know, I could just decide that I wasted my time sewing you together and revoke my charity." She said threateningly.

Naruto's eyes darted to her briefly before seeing the bluff reflected in her emerald eyes. She wasn't going to hurt him. A judgment quickly proven wrong when leaned forward she flicked him on the chip with chakra enhanced fingers, the force of the blow snapping his head back slightly.

"I'm not in the mood to play twenty questions." She said dourly. "We've both had a rough day."

Once his eyes stopped rolling around in his head, Naruto reassessed the situation and came to two conclusions. One, she was willing to hurt him. Two, he resolved earlier that he wanted to get on with his teammates. This was as good an opportunity as he was likely to get.

"I've begun to get a very good idea what Sheol is going to be like." He said. "I've not got much going for me." Naruto paused, not enjoying the admonition of weakness. It went against his raising. But now, he didn't see that he had much choice. "I don't have the natural abilities that comes from being of one of the noble clans. The only thing I've got going for me is my determination and the fact that I'm pretty good at healing." Sakura felt her eyes widen in surprise at Naruto's words. She had a very sickly sinking feeling she knew where this was going.

"So I have to do what must be done to match them. I can outlast them. I have more stamina and once I get better I'll grind them down." Naruto hesitated. "Can you do me a favor?"

Sakura nodded mutely.

"Can you get me a request slip?"

She did so. Naruto accepted the paper and pen, quickly jotted down a few items, one of which was a new set of clothes, and handed it back.

"Thanks." Naruto murmured.

"An introduction to Sealing?" Sakura asked, raising an eyebrow at him in question. "Isn't Sealing difficult to learn?"

Naruto flushed at the implication. He knew that he wasn't a genius like the Uchiha or have perfect scores like Sakura did, but he was not stupid. He was just… average. Painfully, disappointingly average.

"I'll get it." He grunted, glancing down, idly noticing that the slash across his chest wasn't nearly as inflamed as it had been a few minutes ago. "I'm just full of surprises."

He was surprised when Sakura didn't contradict him, as she would have just a few days ago. She just sat there, hands idly twiddling with her torn skirt, eyes unfocused from thought.

"I suppose." She said eventually. "Who am I to say otherwise, eh?"

Naruto frowned. This was not the Sakura he was used to. The Sakura he knew was brash, angry, and had a mean left hook, but most of all she was overwhelmingly self-confident. He brought his fingers up in a handsign.

"Release." He said, pulsing his chakra to dispel a genjutsu. Nothing changed, not that he was surprised. He was dreadful at dispelling illusions.

"What was that for?" Sakura asked, confused.

"Sorry." Naruto said, frown still in place. She had touched him, so that meant she was probably real. Not to mention this would be a pretty stupid illusion for someone to put on him, now that he thought about it. "You're not usually like this." He said.

"Like what?" Sakura asked, perking up a bit.

"You're not usually so," Naruto floundered, gesturing at her vaguely with two hands, "droopy."

"Oh." Sakura said, wilting again, "that. I've been… disillusioned."

Naruto's frowned deepened. "Isn't that a good thing?" He asked. "Who placed the Genjutsu on you?"

Sakura chuckled weakly, a small smile playing along her lips. "Not that kind of illusion, idiot. What I mean is being a ninja isn't entirely what I thought it'd be. It turns out, I'm not very good at it."

"You too, huh?" Naruto asked, understanding where she was coming from. Looking down, he inspected the stitching. "You know," he said slowly, "This is rather good work."

"It's sloppy and uneven." Sakura said with a snort, not looking up at him. "It's nothing like what the book I read a few years ago described.

Naruto stared at her incredulously. A few years ago? Had he heard that right?

"Growing up where I did," Naruto said, forcing a light tone. He didn't like talking about his past, but it seemed like Sakura needed someone to talk to at the moment. "I've had to do my own fair share of stitching. If any of them were anywhere near as close to as good as this is, I might not have been through as many scars as I have."

"I didn't see any scars on you." Sakura said, eyeing him.

"I told you, I heal. Everything fades in time, even scars. What I'm trying to say is that you've got a talent in this."

"Healing people is hardly what ninja do." Sakura pointed out.

"Maybe I'm wrong, but wasn't one of the Sannin a medic-nin? And aren't we training here to – I don't know, replace them or something?" He knew full well that one of them was a medic. He'd been reading history the other day and the author had gone into painstaking detail on how they helped win the war. His statement had the desired effect in making Sakura pause in thought.

"Do you think I could be like her, like Tsunade?" She asked. Naruto wasn't surprised that she knew the Sannin's name. She seemed to know just about everything. It was one of things that initially had attracted him to her.

"Of course." Naruto said with a grin. "I don't think you've ever felt one of your left hooks before. You're already half way there!"

Sakura narrowed her eyes and Naruto's smile vanished faster than a leaf in flames. In the excitement of the moment he'd forgotten he'd forgotten whom he'd been talking to and how quickly Sakura's temper could turn. He bit his tongue. Talking too much had been one of his problems on the streets. He acted like he didn't like people, hiding behind so-called weakness, but in truth he loved people. He enjoyed what made them tick. Their likes, dislikes, what they're dreams for the future are, what their past was like, he'd liked hear it all. And he'd been beaten for it. So he'd had fun at the academy while he could, doing stupid stuff for a laugh but remained quiet outside.

Naruto put his palms up in a gesture of surrender. "I didn't mean it like that, honest."

Sakura relaxed, smiling.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to hit someone who is injured."

"Not anymore." Naruto said cheerfully, sitting up and picking at the stitches still in his skin, though his wound had disappeared, leaving a white scar in its place.

"That's not possible." Sakura said, eyes wide.

"What can I say? I'm a surprising guy." Naruto commented, finally succeeding in getting a grip on the thread and began to pull it out.

"It looks like me becoming a medic is rather useless to you." Sakura said blandly, almost sounding disappointed.

"Nonsense." Naruto replied dismissively. "If you hadn't helped, it would have taken at least a day for this to heal. The dirtier the wound, the longer it takes to recover."

"Makes sense." Sakura said. "The less bacteria in the wound, the less your body has to work to heal." Sakura's face took on a thoughtful expression. "That's a really useful ability, almost like a blood line. Uzumaki, I've never heard of them before."

Naruto shrugged, discarding the small thread he'd successfully pulled to the side. "I haven't either. We must not have been important, even if we were once a clan. I never knew my parents." Naruto shot a look at her. "As you made a point to rub it in."

Sakura winced, her face flushing in shame.

"I'm sorry about that." She said softly. "I-I don't really have an excuse."

"Don't worry about it." Naruto said heavily, leaning back on his bed, tucking both hands behind is head. There was little point trying to cover his chest up. He couldn't access his chest yet to get a change of clothes, and what remained of his shirt was gone. "Everyone hates me. Why should you be any different?"

Sakura's flush deepened. "But why do they hate you?"

"I haven't the faintest idea." Naruto said airily, covering up just how much it really bothered him.

"That doesn't make sense."

"You're telling me. I-"

The door opened, cutting Naruto off, drawing the two's attention. Sasuke entered, his head held high as usual, black eyes staring forward with a confidence Naruto was surprised to see still intact here. The only thing that gave away that he wasn't just out on an evening stroll were his torn clothes, thin scratches just visible through the opened fabric. He also had an involuntary twitch in his left arm.

"Anko use her poisons today?" Sakura asked, surprising Naruto with the small trace of venom in her voice. Apparently she'd really meant it when she'd hinted that she was jealous of them for being combat types. Sheol had really changed her.

_It's not like you've haven't changed a bit yourself._ Naruto mentally chided himself. _Protecting people? Stupid for someone to make that resolve on the streets, dead stupid. But I'm not on the streets anymore. I'm in Sheol. The rules don't apply here._

Sasuke cast them a level gaze, contempt barely repressed under the carefully calm expression. Naruto felt his dislike of nobility flare inside of him again, but this time he made more of an effort to suppress it. Snapping at the Uchiha would do little to bring them together as a group.

"Come on, sit down." Naruto called, waving the raven-haired Uchiha over. He caught a glimpse of Sakura giving him a unidentifiable expression out of the corner of his eye. "Join in our… debauchery."

"What?" Sakura exclaimed, a flash of surprise crossed Sasuke's face before he got it under control again.

"I'm guessing that was the wrong word to use." Naruto grumbled. "Keeping languages straight is frustrating."

"How many do you know?" Sakura asked.

Naruto shrugged. "Dunno," He replied, "A few the names I know of, others I don't. You pick things up where I was raised. All sorts of people collect there."

"That's fairly impressive." Sakura said. "I wouldn't have thought that of you."

Naruto shrugged again. "I've said it once, I'll say it again. I'm a surprising guy."

"What happened to your clothes?" Sasuke said tersely.

Naruto smiled widely. "A regular day at Sheol."

Sasuke hesitated for a moment, and then nodded curtly, accepting the answer. For once, Naruto was grateful for the Uchiha's direct manner. He hadn't relived the experience for Sakura, and he certainly didn't want to go though it for both of them at once. What worried him most was the possibility that he would have to go through it again.

"You were never supposed to be here." Sasuke said confidently. "You don't have a bloodline, nor are you talented enough to make up for it. You will fail."

Naruto let his grin grow even wider. "We'll see about that. I'll accept the challenge. I'll show you that one day I'll become Hokage."

Sasuke leveled a cold stare at him.

"Show me."

**Line Break**

Sasuke sat stiff backed in his chair, the blond Yamanaka lounged in his seat across from him. The room they were in was small, but comfortable in a homely kind of way that made Sasuke edgy. It was very unprofessional to have personal items in a workspace environment, like the pictures of his family on the desk and the crudely drawn artwork on the walls, signed by a Ino Yamanaka – age five.

"So how are you today, Sasuke?" Inoichi asked pleasantly, the lack of formality between them causing Sasuke's eye to twitch in annoyance. It was the end of the week interview and it had been several days since he'd encountered

"Can we skip the phyco-babble introductions? I haven't the energy for it and know it just as well as you. I am fine. My training goes well. I have made efforts to… connect," He bit the word off as though it were filled with something unpleasant, "with my bunkmates. They are crude, uncivilized, and has no concept of what it means to be a ninja." Inoichi nodded with each word as Sasuke spoke.

"You came awfully close to dying your first day here." Inoichi said lightly, as if commenting on the weather.

Sasuke froze, being sure to keep the feeling of icy dread off his face. If he died then there would be no one to avenge his family and his brother's crimes would go unpunished.

"Yes," Inoichi continued. "You didn't think that we wouldn't be watching as we shoved a bunch of fresh recruits into a room steadily filling with water, ready to intercede? I must admit; I was disappointed that you had to be cajoled into helping your bunkmates."

"At the time I had thought them worse than useless. I was wrong." Sasuke said stiffly, displeased at having to admit his fault, but the psychologist wasn't going to accept anything less. And if Sasuke's suspicion that Inoichi could read his surface thoughts was true, there was little point in denying his faults.

"Oh?" Inoichi asked prodding.

Each evening after dinner, Naruto is always wearing a new set of clothes. He tries to hide it by wearing similar clothes but he cannot fool my eyes."

"I wasn't aware that Kakashi had succeeded in awakening your bloodline." Inoichi interrupted.

"Even without the Sharingan, an Uchiha's eyes are not to be underestimated." Sasuke sneered. "Though they try to hide their after-hours studying from me, I know that Naruto's been reading books on Sealing and Sakura's been reading medical texts."

"They are preparing." Inoichi said plainly, placing both of his hands on the table. "You know that the scoring starts in only six months time. The eliminations will begin a year or so after that. "They've undergone some rather interesting changes already since they've arrived here. Sakura has realized what she wants to do and Naruto has redefined his purpose in life. It is only you in the grouping who hasn't changed."

"I don't need changing." Sasuke said stiffly.

"I must admit that your determination to become your brother fascinates me."

"What are you talking about?" Sasuke snapped, his father's voice roaring in his head.

_Don't take that disrespect from him! Show him that Uchiha are superior to everyone. Do not tarnish the family name!_

Sasuke was about stand and do just that before Inoichi spoke and halted his movements.

"You say you're nothing like your brother, but I'm having a hard time seeing the differences. You hide your emotions behind an emotionless face. You carry on your family's prejudices. And worst of all, you view everyone else as simply a tool for you to gain power. That seems very similar to what your brother did so many years ago, don't you think? Isn't that why he slaughtered your family? For some idealistic form of power? I said it last time, but you didn't seem to get the message. This time I'll be more direct. You are heading down a road that will leave you exactly the same as your brother. You'll try and kill him to avenge a nearly extinct clan using the exact same methods of gaining power as he one you're trying to kill? Once you kill him, then what? After you've discarded every opportunity given to you all you'll have left is nothing but a hollow sense of satisfaction that the dead can rest easily."

Sasuke was about to protest but was cut off by a small voice in his head. A familiar voice. A dangerous voice. The voice of his brother.

_Live your life in unsightly hatred. Become strong enough that one day you can take your revenge._

Sasuke blinked, his mind turning inward, reliving memories he'd avoided for years. Back then, Itachi hadn't been nearly so cold as he'd become before the end. He'd seen the distrust others had for him as Itachi had steadily cut himself off from everyone else.

_I need the kind of strength he had._ Sasuke told himself. _But Itachi has so much of a head start. _

Was their anything he could really do? If he wasn't strong enough to avenge the clan, then he wasn't an avenger. If he wasn't an avenger then what was he? The Sasuke he'd been striving to be was merely what his brother, a man he hated more than anything, wanted him to be. What sense was their following the advice of the person he wanted it kill.

All the insecurities he'd felt before he'd been consumed by his hatred rushed back to him as he sat there, in a room that suddenly seemed much too small. Who was he, really?

"I've got to go." Sasuke said in a voice that seemed off to him as he clambered out of his seat, lurching towards the door.

"I'll see you again this time next week." Inoichi called out after him in a voice that was far too cheer.

**Line Break**

Sasuke sat on his cot in silence, hands clasp in front of him, eyes fixed rigidly ahead. Self-doubt ate away at his mind like vermin. He was not Itachi, but he couldn't deny the similarities Inoichi had pointed out. His foundation, that he was right and his cause was just, had been yanked out from underneath him leaving a chasm of… what? What was Uchiha Sasuke if not an avenger?

He couldn't find an answer. His entire life had been a lie, an illusion cast on himself without the aid of chakra. The entire world was nothing but one huge heap of lies. Truth? What was truth other than what you decided to make of it? A man could believe himself to be a popsicle, but that wouldn't make it true no matter how much he acted like one. Sasuke was a popsicle and power was his delusion.

_And what is power other than an illusion of perception?_ Sasuke thought, standing up and glancing at where Sakura was working on constructing her still before turning his attention to the door where the blond had left earlier. He hadn't thought her a alcoholic but it was becoming more and more clear that he didn't know anything.

_Naruto says he'll become a Hokage._ The thought was absurd. The blond was weak, reckless, thoughtless and brutish. He was also honest in a way Sasuke never had been. Every word he spoke was from his heart and not his head. Before he'd dismissed it as foolish, but Naruto _knew_ who he was and stuck true to it whereas Sasuke had suddenly found that he hated himself and what he'd become.

"Do you ever fear you'll become like parents, Sasuke?" Sakura suddenly asked.

Sasuke turned so that he faced the pink haired girl holding a full cup of some white liquid. She was staring into the glassy depths as though afraid of falling into them. She looked up at him and he saw it in her eyes. The anguish, the frustration. The terrible nothing that clawed inside and sought to smother her. She knew. It was there, inside. She had been broken by this place.

"Expectation." Sasuke said heavily, fully aware of the uncomfortably knowing eyes the girl was giving him. "It's what drowns us."

Sakura nodded slowly, returning her gaze to the liquid.

"Expectation isn't just about what people expect of you. It's about what we expect of ourselves."

"Do you really believe that, Sasuke?" Sakura asked, looking up at him sharply with an intensity that surprised him. He had known she could be ferocious. He'd seen it often enough demonstrated when Naruto had done something stupid at the academy.

"I do." He heard himself say. "I believe that we all expect something. Naruto expects the nobility to all be the same rich pompous assholes, and so he makes that his reality. You expect yourself to be weak, and so cripple yourself."

"And you, Sasuke? What about you?" Sakura asked heatedly as her fingers clutched the glass in anger.

"Me?" Sasuke asked hollowly. "I believed myself to be alone and everyone else beneath me, and so they were."

"What a lofty position to look down on us mere mortals from." Sakura bit out.

"Only the throne was made of dirt and I the emperor of a grand illusion."

Sakura smiled a sick, lopsided smile to seemed so at odds with her face.

"What a threesome we are now. I, who once chased after a cold-hearted king who suddenly doesn't know what to believe, and Naruto who detests the king because he feels slighted by his hand in life."

"Then there is only one thing to do." Sasuke muttered.

"What would that be?" Sakura asked.

"We change our expectations." Sasuke replied, moving over to the still and pour a glass. With a glance at Sakura, he downed the entire thing in one gulp with a half-spoken "To change."

The pink haired girl stared at him for a few moments, her eyes search his for any hint of dishonesty. Eventually, she held up her glass and smiled.

"I can drink to that." She said with a smile, following Sasuke's example and downing her own glass.

**End of Chapter Three**


End file.
